Savior
by FieldOfEternalSnow
Summary: Sequel to Monster. Hidden in Anbu is another organization. One that only has 2 members. That's about to change, soon they would be gaining an unexpected new member. Will be KakaNaru that means male x male in later chapters. Rated for possible lemons. AU
1. Savior

**This is a sequel to my story Monster. It can be read individually but the other one is really short so I would recommend reading it before this one.**

I'm well aware that I promised to work on expanding Late - Early next but apparently I don't get attacked by plot bunnies, they're thrown at me by reviewers. A comment from Crazee Pyro on my story Monster got me thinking and this is what my overactive yaoi loving mind came up with.

But I'll be working on Late Early at the same time so no worries.

**Disclaimer: **  
I don't own Naruto or anything else connected to him

**Pairings: **  
Will eventually be KakaNaru

**Warning:**  
If KakaNaru doesn't make it clear enough then this story contains Male x Male love and might just possibly contain a lemon or two in later chapters, although I make no promises.  
Will also possibly contain spoilers in later chapters and I'll try to warn about them individually when they come up.**  
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Chapter 1. Savior

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Savior

He'd never been called that before.  
Yet to a little child with blond hair he was. He was the savior who comforted him in the dark. Healed him after the monsters were through with him. He was his anchor. His only friend. His only light in the darkness.

He'd never acted like one before.  
But for him, his little kit, he would. He would protect him in every way that he could. Keep him strong. Keep him happy. He didn't understand why. He'd stopped thinking about that. All he knew was that he cared for his little kit and he would do his best to never let anyone break his spirit.

He'd never been seen as one before.  
Yet little blue eyes looked up at him. Not with fear. Not with hate. Little sky blue eyes looked up at him with trust. With kindness. With love. Like the whole world was actually a better place because he was in it.

He was a demon  
But to one person he wasn't a monster. And that one person was enough.

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Their savior

That's what they would eventually call him.  
Not at the moment. Not for a few years. But eventually. They would see him in a new light. Let go of their old hate. Their old fears. Finally accept him the way he had dreamed they would.

That's how he had always acted.  
They might be monsters. They might treat him badly. But he had hope. Someday the monsters would stop hunting him. Someday the monsters would stop hating him. Someday the monster would regain their humanity. And when that day came he would be waiting. Waiting to forgive them. Waiting to love them.

That's how they would eventually see him.  
He always did protect them. Became strong for them. Fought for them. They just didn't know it. But eventually they would. Eventually they would really _see_ him.

Not as a demon.  
Not as a monster.

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His savior

That's what he would call him.  
He couldn't see his face when he first saw him. It was hidden behind a black dog mask with red paint. But he trusted him. He didn't feel like a monster. He kind of reminded him of his friend Kyuu.

That's how he acted like.  
The monsters were beating him again. Somehow it was worse today, even Kyuubi was nervous. The monsters were screaming for his death. Then suddenly he was there. Shielding him from the fists. The kicks. The big katana that was coming for his head.

That's how he saw him.  
Strong. Powerful. Caring. He chased the monsters away. Asked him if he was ok. Promised to take him to Jijii. Told him he would sort everything out. No one would ever hurt him again as long as he could help it.

He wasn't a demon.  
He wasn't a monster, although he sometimes felt like one.

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	2. The Dog, The Cat and the Little Mousy

A few explanations:

**Akutenshi** Evil angels. **Ryouken** hunting dog. **Kuroneko** Black cat. **Jijii** Old man, Grandpa

_.x.x.x.x. _I mostly use this to indicate a change in point of views or basically just so the story won't be all squished together.. I hate how I can't make more space between lines.

**.x.x.x.x.** Used to indicate a time skip, big or small. I also just use it instead of these lines that FFnet provides.. I don't like them.

**SPOILER WARNING:** contains the name and identity of Naruto's dad

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Chapter 2.

The Dog, The Cat and the Little Mousy

As you normally see in the animal kingdom, the dog chases the cat, the cat chases the mouse and the mouse... eats cheese??

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Someone was moving in the evening shadows of the village hidden in the leaves. No one would be able to see him, sense him and even, in a few cases, smell him. Even when he jumped over their heads as they celebrated below him. He wasn't there. He didn't exist.

Except that he was and he did, but only to three people. To everyone else he was a legend. A ghost story. Something parents used to scare their children to behave with. That always annoyed him. He and his partner were there to protect the village, not to terrorize little kids because they didn't brush their teeth at night.

To three people he was simply known as Ryouken. A member of Anbu that no one in Anbu knew about. Unlike the regular Anbu uniform his was all black. His mask, armor and clothes. Even the metal on his gloves and his Katana were black. The only other color in his uniform were the blood red patterns on his black dog mask.

Something was about to happen though that would change Ryouken's life, all his lives actually, he was living 3 at the moment. Ryouken was making his way to the Hokage tower to get a mission briefing from the third, along with his partner, when he heard a ruckus. He almost ignored it, thought it was probably some drunk people from the festival brawling in the alley. But then he heard a distinctive sound. A little child crying out in pain. He immediately changed course and headed towards it.

What he saw when he got there made him almost shake with anger. It took a lot to make someone who had gone through extensive training to suppress his emotions angry but this sight certainly had. In the alley below him a crowd of people, civilian and shinobi, were beating a little kid. He couldn't see the child clearly but he knew what he looked like. He was small for his age, frail even, had tan skin, blond hair and the bluest eyes you would ever see in all of Fire country.

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The little boy was done running. His lungs hurt when they struggled to gasp in air, his feet burned and shook like little twigs in a storm and he felt light headed and dizzy because he hadn't eaten much that day. Jijii had been too busy to make sure he got his meals. That wasn't the reason he had stopped running though.

No the reason for that was the huge barricade of crates and rubbish that was blocking the alley. They knew he would run down this way, it was the shortest route to the Hokage tower. His only safety. He looked around franticly for a way over the barricade or a place to hide but knew it was in vain, the monsters chasing him were already coming up behind him. The first kick connected with him before he could even turn around, sending him crashing into the barricade. He cried out in pain when a few more kicks and punches connected with his small body.

The monsters were crueler than usual. For the first time he was really frightened of them, even Kyuu was nervous. The monsters cries were different this time. They didn't call him mean names or curse him. They were shouting for his death. One big monster separated himself from the group and came towards him, he didn't know why but the monster looked happy. It raised a big katana over its head smiling as he did so. The little boy closed his eyes and waited for the pain. Except the pain never came, he wondered for a brief moment if he had died but concluded otherwise. He could still sense his surroundings but something had changed. In front of him was a new chakra signature. A huge one, full of power and anger. But not anger directed at him. When he opened his eyes he was looking at the back of an Anbu, except his uniform wasn't like the regular once. His savior didn't have to say anything. The monsters just started running away in fear, he could smell it pouring out of them.

When the monsters were gone his savior turned around and bent down until they were face to face. He liked his dog mask, it reminded him of Kyuu.

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"Are you alright, Naruto?" He tried to reach for him to check his injuries but the kid backed away.

"It's alright, I won't hurt you."

"I know, but Jijii told me never to trust strangers so you have to introduce yourself first. I don't want to break my promise."

Now that was a surprise. The kid was barely standing due to his injuries and yet he acted like everything was alright. Ryouken looked into the child's eyes and felt a strong bond form over what he saw there. In a little child no older than 5 were eyes more suited for an old man. Wise way beyond the few years he had lived. Eyes that not only knew about the harshness of the world but had accepted them. Ryouken knew those eyes, he'd had the same once when he was Naruto's age.

"Well I'm very sorry but I promised the Hokage not to give anyone my name. I suppose you could just call me Doggie for now, would that be alright?"

"I guess that would be Ok, you are a doggie after all. Are you on your way to see Jijii? Can you take me with you?"

Ryouken nearly laughed. A minute ago the child was serious as hell and now he acted like the little kid he was. Giddy and excited.

"Yes I will, as soon as I've finished looking at your wounds." That was another surprise, his wounds would have had any other 5 year old lying screaming on the ground for it's mommy. Some adults might have been doing the same, but Naruto was just standing there calmly while he did his examination.

He was startled out of his thoughts by Naruto's calm voice.

"It's my birthday today" Blue eyes looked up at him with a hint of sadness. "The monsters are always worse on my birthday."

Ryouken didn't know what to say to that. Happy birthday didn't seem quite appropriate and explaining why was forbidden by law. Instead Ryouken picket Naruto up piggyback style and headed for the Hokage tower, The third had an awful lot of explaining to do. Feeling the need to say something to the kid he settled for the only thing that came to his mind.

"It's going to be alright, I'll take care of it. No one will ever hurt you again if I can help it."

A promise not only to the child but a promise he made to himself, he would make sure the boy was well taken car of.

_'If only you knew how your son was being treated. I wonder if you would have given your life as willingly then'_

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Ryouken slipped into the hokage's office through one of the windows, carefully making sure not to jostle the little kid on his back too much. His injuries didn't look as severe as he first thought but he found no reason to cause the boy any more pain, Kami knew he must have had enough of that.

He knew without looking that his partner was already there, the guy was so punctual that you could set your watch after him down to the second. Plus he could sense him when he was 2 blocks away. His chakra signature was strong, laced with power, annoyance and a tiny hint of worry if you looked underneath the calmness. And sure enough his Anbu partner was standing in front of the Hokage's desk, clad in an all black Anbu uniform identical to his own. A black cat mask with red paint turned to face him when he got closer.

"You're later than usual." Kuroneko stated.

Like Ryouken he wore a bandanna to cover up his hair, making it impossible for anyone to recognize him by his hair color or length. Most Anbu didn't bother with things like that, but then again they weren't most Anbu. It is true that one of them was a well known Anbu captain and the other one was an Anbu trap and seal specialist but both of them also had another position, a position that for all intents and purposes didn't exist, nowhere on paper at least. A secret division hidden inside a secret division. Underneath the underneath.

They were the Akutenshi. Only the two of them, assassins hand picked by the Hokage himself for special missions not even Anbu were trusted with. As such they had to go to more lengths than regular anbu to conceal their identity. They wore bandannas to hide their hair, had special sprays that destroyed any smells that could identify them and were masters in manipulating their chakra so others wouldn't recognize it. Despite all the secrecy they, along with the Hokage, knew all of each others identities. They had to if anything ever happened.

"Ah, you see I found this little fishcake being eaten by some monsters and I just had to save it."

"Oi, who are you calling a fishcake you big meanie."

Ryouken walked over and stood next to his partner before he shifted Naruto so that he was now holding him out for the Hokage to see.

"Would you care to explain this" He asked in a calm yet angry voice.

The hokage looked up at Naruto and sighed, it were moments like these when he really felt old. The kid's clothes were torn and slightly bloody in places and you could clearly see bruises on his tiny frame. He took Naruto from the Anbu's hands and placed him on his desk to examine his injuries.

"I see it happened again"

_Again_" The words were all but growled out, the Sandaime always thought it was funny how the mans personality fitted his name and mask.. but then again that was how most Anbu got them in the first place. "You're telling me this happens a lot."

The hokage finished going over Naruto's wounds and then set him down. His wounds would heal quickly, probably before the night was over.

"Naruto why don't you go over to the book case and read a little bit ok?"

"Alright Jijii" Sarutobi watched the little boy run happily to the corner of his office where a big bookcase stood. It always amazed him how quickly the boy lightened up. '_Kyuubi's doing no doubt_.' At first he hadn't liked it one bit when Naruto told him the demon talked to him but he soon realized that it was doing the boy good. For some unexplainable reason the demon cared for the boy like a parent would for their child.

"Hokage sama?"

Sarutobi sighed again before he focused back on the dog masked Anbu in front of his desk.

"Naruto spends most of his days here with me in my office. There are very few people in this village, shinobi or otherwise, who will look after him. Unfortunately I can't keep an eye on him all the time because of work so I have to assign other ninjas to do it while I'm gone. More often than not they treat him badly, don't do anything when he's attacked or even initiate the attacks themselves."

"And you just let them? If I hadn't happened upon him when I did his head would have been cut off!" The Anbu was nearly shouting now, a clear sign that he was beyond angry since his emotions training was slipping.

"He's the demon what do you expect" The man in the dark cat mask intervened.

"That kid may have the nine tails sealed in his stomach but he is no more of a demon than you or me" Ryouken snapped.

"In his stomach or where ever it's the same thing"

Before the hokage or Kuroneko could so much as blink Ryouken had slipped out a kunai and plunged it into the other Anbu's stomach.

"Now tell me" He growled out. "You've got a kunai in your stomach, does that make you the kunai or does that just make you a man who got a kunai thrust into him against his will? If it wasn't for that little _demon,_ as you like to call him, the Kyuubi wouldn't have been stopped and I would have thought that for that people would treat him like the fourth, his _father_, requested"

"Enough!" The Hokage bellowed. " Kuroneko, you will never call Naruto that again in my presence. Ryouken, you've just assaulted a fellow shinobi. Your _partner_. You will _both_ be punished for your acts and I will let you know what those punishments are when you come back with your mission report. As for your earlier question Ryouken I can't exactly suspend more than half the ninja population, as much as I would love to do so, and the council is breathing down my neck enough as it is concerning him. I do the best I can but my hands are severely tied in this case."

"Hey doggie" All eyes turned to the little boy who was tugging on one of Ryouken's pants leg and looking up at him with his big blue eyes. "Your book is boring."

It was then that the three men in the room noticed the bright orange book in the child's hand. Ryouken quickly flipped his weapons pouch open and sure enough his Itcha Itcha paradise was gone.

"How did you... when did you.. Give me that." He snatched the book from the kid, thankful for his dog mask because he swore that even with the mask he had on under it the other two would have been able to see how red his face was becoming.

"Che Ryouken, you sure must be losing your touch if that little brat can get your precious book from you without you noticing."

The cat masked Anbu promptly found himself sitting on his ass after having his feet kicked out from under him. He turned around quickly to snap at his partner for it but realized he hadn't moved. He looked to his other side and came face to face with golden hair and blue eyes underneath which was a big scowl.

"I'm not a brat you big meanie! Stop calling me names"

Both Anbu looked up at the hokage stunned. Sarutobi just laughed at them and shook his head.

"Naruto, give the book back and find something more suitable to read." To the Anbu he said. "Like I told you, Naruto spends most of his time here in my office. I didn't exactly have a lot of children's books around so I would read to him from what ever I had, most of it books about all sorts of shinobi techniques and training. He's a very gifted child and about a year ago he started reading on his own. Soon that wasn't enough for him and he begged me for days on end to start training him so I've been teaching him for about 9 months now."

"What level is he on"

"Oh I couldn't really say. I think if we were to test his abilities he would easily be at chuunin level, if he keeps improving at the rate he's going now I'd say he'd be at jounin level in a year or so. Normally that wouldn't even be possible chakra wise even for prodigies." Sarutobi looked at the dog masked Anbu as he said those words. "But then again Naruto, unfortunately, isn't exactly normal. I think the Kyuubi has something to do with his big chakra reserve. At the moment he's a genin, I was able to override the council on that one and oversaw his exams myself, but unfortunately he'll have to participate in the chuunin exams to get that title. The council is against it and it'll be hard finding a team that will work with him."

Both Anbu gaped, although you couldn't really see that since they both had their masks on.

Ryouken looked at the little boy. He felt a closer connection with him now, he understood all to well what it was like to be a child prodigy, he'd been a genin at five and chuunin at six. If Naruto had had the same chances he had when he was younger there wasn't a doubt in his mind that the kid would or could have done the same. A part of him wished that Naruto could have just been a regular kid or that despite his skills he could get a normal upbringing, the life of prodigies was never an easy one, but his more practical side told him that it would never happen. Prodigies in the ninja world were trained and pushed to their limit for the good of the village, and the kid would never get a normal upbringing, genius or not, thanks to Kyuubi. If only he had someone close who could not only give him the training but the care that he needed.

"Hokage sama, I would like to become Naruto's guardian" The words were out of his mouth before he even realized he had been thinking those thoughts, had in fact been thinking them since he rescued him in that alley. He didn't regret them, they just took him by surprise.

"Are you sure that is what you want?"

"Yes I'm sure. If not for me then at least do it for him. I think I owe it to his father to make sure his son gets all that he needs."

Sarutobi smiled. '_I guess we don't have to worry about either one of your boys Minato. Something tells me they're going to be just fine.'_

"Your request is granted. I will give you all the information and paperwork you will need after your mission tonight. I can't promise you will be able to take him home right away, we'll have to work that out somehow. First and foremost none of your covers can be blown. You won't have to worry about Naruto telling anyone anything, I swear that kid could go through Anbu torture and he wouldn't tell you anything unless he wanted to. Now would both of you get going already! 20 missing nins aren't just going to up and kill themselves _for_ us you know! Just make sure to stop by your medic nin before you head out, I'm not sending someone on a mission with a kunai in their stomach."

The Akutenshi had a special medic nin who took care of them. It wasn't exactly that no-one knew they existed, there were rumors flying about them everywhere. They called them the ghosts of Konoha. Almost everyone knew someone who knew someone who had seen them. But the fewer people who actually knew for _sure_ that they did exist the better and that meant no running around hospitals in their uniforms. Before this night the only people who truly knew they existed was the Hokage, their medic nin and the Akutenshi themselves. After this night was over there would be one more. Every other person in that alley would just turn into another one of those someones who claimed to have seen the ghosts of Konoha.

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When they were gone Sarutobi turned to the little boy who was now reading quietly next to his chair.

"I guess you're birthday wasn't so great huh Naruto?"

"It was alright Jijii. Kyuu says it's his birthday too today." Naruto looked up and gave Sarutobi one of his rare smiles. One that reached his sky blue eyes and melted your insides.

"He says no ones ever given him a present in his whole life and he's more than a thousand years old, isn't that sad? I told him we could share the book you gave me. He wanted me to tell you he says thank you"

_'A demon thanking me for a book, now that's something that doesn't happen everyday'_

The Sandaime turned away from the little kid he cared for like his own grandson and opened a secret compartment in his desk, reached in and took out a scroll. Both compartment and scroll were protected with seals that only the hokage or one of the Akutenshi could open. It contained all their names, identities, skills and responsibilities along with mission reports and information they had gathered on missions that could not be registered in official documents. There was no mention of the word Akutenshi anywhere on it though, only the names they went by, that organization did not exist outside of the minds of 3 people. 4 after that night.

When the Hokage was done updating the files they stated.

Name:  
Hatake Kakashi. Rank: Jounin  
Inu. Rank: Anbu captain, Tracker.  
Ryouken. Rank: Master tracker

Name:  
Umino Iruka. Rank: Chuunin, Academy Sensei.  
Neko. Rank: Anbu, seal and trap specialist  
Kuroneko. Rank: Seal Master, Trap Master. Strategy Master.

The third Hokage of the village hidden in the leaf smiled at the changes he'd made. By both names under their responsibilities was now a new line. _Guardian of Uzumaki Naruto._ One of them would be happy with it. The other one would learn, he just needed a little push.

_'Hopefully a better one than a kunai in the stomach.'_

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	3. Regrets of the past

**This is the real deal people, not an april fools.**

This might be confusing but from now on I will be referring to Kakashi and Iruka by those names even when they are on Akutenshi duty. The names Ryouken and Kuroneko will mainly be used when they are communicating on Akutenshi missions or when people who don't know who they really are are talking or thinking about them.

Also just to clarify.. at this point in the story Naruto is 5, Kakashi is 20 and Iruka is 19. according to my info that should be about right but since I'm going pretty loosely with facts in this story it shouldn't really matter if it's accurate or not.

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The Akutenshi moved swiftly through the night. Running over rooftops and using back alleys to avoid the people who were making their way home from the festival. They were running late but hopefully their targets hadn't moved past their designated area.

"This wouldn't have been a problem if you hadn't been late." Iruka grumbled in annoyance.

Kakashi, who is widely known for always being at least 2 or 3 hours late for everything, had a remarkably good punctuality when on Akutenshi duty, he only showed up 10 to 20 minutes late in order to annoy Iruka.

"I'm not the one who had to go to the medic nin and held us back for 25 minutes."

"Well who's fault was that." Iruka snapped.

"Yours, you asked for it."

Iruka decided to drop the subject. Although he did see Naruto as the demon who took his parents lives he knew Kakashi only saw him as his old Sensei's son and although he certainly wasn't happy about recent events Iruka respected his partner enough to not push the subject.

Kakashi could feel Iruka's annoyance rolling off of him in waves but didn't worry much about it, despite being as different as night and day they had been very good friends for a long time now and working together as closely as they did, where you had to be able to rely on your partner and trust him with your life without question, meant that what ever differences they might have would either be forgiven or put behind them straight away. They could do a lot more than stab each other with kunais without making a big deal out of it.

Soon they were outside the village walls were they swiftly jumped up into the trees and made their way to the clearing they'd prepared the night before. They had been tracking a group of 20 missing nins for 3 days now. According to the information they had gathered during their observation the criminals were planing to disguise themselves as merchants, get into Konoha and plant explosives in the more populated places of the village. According to Kakashi's tracking and Iruka's calculations they should be passing through that specific clearing very soon if they hadn't already.

The Akutenshi looked at each other and both nodded their heads. A silent agreement that they'd better pick up their pace if they didn't want to be forced to change their plans.

Iruka had put up a complex seal trap in the clearing and all they had to do was wait for the ninjas to show up before Iruka would detonate the seals and hopefully kill the majority of the group in one go, after that Kakashi would take out the rest with close range combat and Iruka backing him up from a distance. If the enemy had moved past that point the mission would become considerably harder.

They would have to engage the enemy in a close range fight and despite being better at it than most Iruka wasn't a close range fighter and even though his wound had been healed his side still hurt making it even worse for him to fight close range which meant Kakashi would pretty much have to hold up the fight on his own. Iruka didn't doubt his partners abilities one bit, he was a very powerful fighter who could give the sannins themselves a run for their money, but the odds were against them with 20 S-rank criminals against 2, one and a half if you took in Iruka's weaknesses and Iruka always took everything in to his calculations and plans.

In the Akutenshi you could say that Iruka was the head and Kakashi was the body. Iruka provided most of their plans and strategies and Kakashi provided the power. They were the perfect pair because despite both of them being very strong individually they matched each others strengths and weaknesses perfectly.

On assassin missions Kakashi would track or locate the target and spy on it for information, Iruka would come up with a plan on how to execute things and if possible set up an ambush and Kakashi would then either eliminate the target in close combat, with Iruka as back up with long range attacks, or pick up any left overs that might have gotten through Iruka's traps. It was only slightly different on infiltration and information gathering missions. Kakashi would locate and scout the area and Iruka would come up with a plan. Since these missions rarely contained any fighting and mainly consisted of stealth or disguise it would then be up to the circumstances of the mission which one of them would take the front and which one would provide back up. Kakashi, the master of stealth, or Iruka, the master of disguise.

When the Akutenshi finally made it to the clearing they were in luck, no signs could be found that the enemy had been through there yet. They sat silently side by side in a tree overlooking the clearing and the route the enemy was most likely to make. The area was faintly illuminated by the moon making the world around them silver and black. Iruka thought it looked uncannily like his friend sitting beside him, and not just because of the colors.

Kakashi always reminded Iruka of a dark silent night. Beautiful but sad at the same time. Those who didn't know him well, and that was a great number of people considering the Copy-nin hardly let anyone close, saw him as the laid back, lazy, carefree and porno reading pervert that he unmistakably was but Iruka knew that underneath all that his partner was hiding a very sad and lonely soul, one who was wrecked with guilt and regret over lost friends and could have beens. He spent a great deal of time at the memorial stone every week and Iruka sometimes found him sitting quietly, eyes closed and head tilted towards the stars. Lost somewhere in the past that was as present in his mind as the here and now.

Iruka was pulled out of his thoughts when his partner turned to him with an outstretched fist. He smiled behind his mask before he did the same, accepting the challenge. Now if anyone were to see them they would certainly think all was not right with the world. Two deadly assassins sitting hunched in a tree playing rock, paper, scissors would have just about anyone questioning their sanity or wondering what on earth had been slipped into their drink. It was an old habit of theirs from when they were just starting out as the Akutenshi. Iruka, 15 at the time and not fully over his prankster stage, had initiated it when they were on a long and boring stake out. Kakashi, then 16 and the more serious one of the two at the time, hadn't been very fond of the idea but it made the time go faster and soon it had become a regular thing for the two.

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In his office Sarutobi sat comfortably resting on his couch. He had his pipe in one hand and was slowly watching the smoke dance towards the ceiling. His other hand was softly stroking the blond hair on the little head that was resting in his lap. Looking down at the sleeping form of the little boy made him wonder how people could ever want to hurt something so innocent. So beautiful.

As much as it hurt him to do it the Hokage had made a decision that could, and probably would, crush his innocence far too early. He'd had to make the same decision not so many years ago and had hoped at the time that he would never have to make it again.

"What I wouldn't give in order for you to have a normal life." Sarutobi sighed. "The only consolation this old fool here has now is that at least all of you will have each other to lean on."

The Third turned his eyes away from the little child cuddling against him and looked out into the night, his thoughts now occupied by two other boys who's lives had been affected by his decisions, they had both been forced to grow up quicker than most and although Sarutobi knew he had little to do with that he certainly hadn't helped.

"I wish it could have been different for you too. Iruka... Kakashi..."

They had both lost everyone important to them in the Kyuubi attack and the Sandaime had seen both boys slowly slipping away into darkness. In a desperate attempt to keep them both from breaking he had pretty much forced them to live together, told them it was either that or the orphanage. He'd thought that Iruka's friendliness and cheery behavior would be exactly what Kakashi needed and in return Kakashi would be the strength and steadiness that Iruka needed.

He certainly did _not_ expect them to hit it off so famously and never in his wildest dreams had he expected to find out that Iruka's parents had been hiding his immense talents in order to protect their son from the life of prodigies. The Sandaime had at first been thinking about honoring their decisions and not put Iruka into any special training but realized soon that he had to find something interesting to keep both boys very, very busy. Iruka had somehow managed to recruit Kakashi as his partner in crime and a series of very well planned and executed pranks had had the village in an uproar.

So Sarutobi started training the boys in the hopes that the extra training would provide them with a more _acceptable_ outlet for their skills, although he decided to keep it a secret in order for both boys to still be able to have a small chance at a somewhat normal life. But when both of them flew into Anbu, hardly a year later, without much difficulty and still continued to improve the Sandaime saw an opportunity he forced himself to take. And so Akutenshi had been formed.

To the outside world Kakashi was still the same genius who graduated at 5, became chuunin at 6, jounin at 13 and had earned the nick name Copy-ninja not so long after that. And although rumors had started circulating recently that he was in Anbu no one could ever imagine how much farther he had gotten.

Iruka had a more low profile cover thanks to Sarutobi, Kakashi had grown up a prodigy and a killer but Iruka hadn't so the Third had made the decision to try to keep his day to day life as _normal_ as possible. Therefore Iruka hadn't made any spectacular accomplishments, he'd made it to chuunin in his second chuunin exam when he was 16 and started helping out and later teaching at the academy only a year ago.

The Third Hokage of the leaf looked over at the four pictures hanging on the wall opposite his resting place. Two pictures of the once who came before him, one picture of himself and one picture of someone who came both after and before him in the Hokage seat.

"What would you have done in my shoes? I know it's for the greater good but why must the lives of few be waisted for the lives of many?"

The question that the four men, past and present, had in common was left unspoken.

_'Why must I decide which one belongs to the few and which one belongs to the many?'_

The Sandaime's eyes lingered longest on the last picture in the line. The Yondaime looked uncharacteristically serious on the portrait. Like he knew what were to happen in the future, how the village he fought for and loved would come to hate his only son.

"Why must fate be decided by fools?" Sarutobi whispered to the little child by his side.

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Kakashi sensed their enemies when he and Iruka were on their 8th game. They were coming from the direction they had predicted and would be passing through the clearing in little over 2 minutes. He quickly turned to his partner and formed some hand signs.

"_Incoming, southwest, 2 minutes. Get into position."_

He was about to dash of when Iruka stopped him and signed back.

"_At my signal take cover and wait for everything to die down before even thinking about coming out."_

When the enemy arrived Kakashi and Iruka were sitting at opposite ends of the clearing, Iruka perched over the way they came in and Kakashi watching the way they would exit. When the majority of the group was inside the clearing Kakashi saw his partner spring into action. Iruka performed a series of complicated hand seals before slamming his hand onto a seal note fastened to the tree he was sitting on. The note then sent out a faint chakra echo activating the other notes that were hidden all over the clearing and soon all hell broke loose. It never failed to surprise Kakashi how his usually mild mannered and friendly partner could come up with such deadly and destructive traps. But then again the guy did have an endless source of creativity.

Kakashi now knew why his friend had decided to name his latest creation _chaos_ because the scene before him could only be described by that word. First a strong whirlwind formed, littered with dozens of kunais, reaching from one end of the clearing to the next completely blocking off all escape routes. The whirlwind got smaller and smaller really fast until the kunais had cut or stabbed the men in the clearing. Before the wind had even fully died down exploding tags that were attached to the kunais went off one by one blasting and shooting more knifes in every direction and to finish it all off the ground momentarily collapsed under them successfully burying everyone, dead or alive.

When the screams and the noise finally died down and the dust had settled Kakashi saw that no one had made it out of the clearing alive. The silence and the atmosphere that remained could only be described with one word and one word alone. Death.

Kakashi now only had one goal. He made his way to his friend as fast as he could.

There was a reason why Iruka had never mastered close range combat, a reason only Kakashi and Iruka himself knew about, although the Hokage had a pretty good idea about it as well. Iruka just didn't have the heart to take someones life up close and personal. As great, deadly and sometimes even down right evil as Iruka could be their missions could take their toll on him. Kakashi had often found him still and unresponsive after particularly bad missions. It didn't make him any less of a shinobi. All shinobis, as much as they try to suppress it, are essentially human, and humans have feelings. Kakashi himself was known to break down from time to time. It was expected. It was normal. A ninja who was not affected by the violence that came with the job was probably not sane enough to be in it in the first place. But it was alright, they had each other when it happened.

To Kakashi's relief Iruka was organizing and packing the remainder of his weapons and things away when Kakashi reached him. His hands were shaking as he checked the weapons for cracks and flaws but otherwise he was ok.

"That was incredible, although I wouldn't have minded having something to do tonight." Kakashi drawled out in a bored tone.

"Well I was only thinking of you my lazy friend" Iruka countered in a teasing tone, although if you knew where to look you could hear the underlying tremor in his voice. "Thought you might want to relax a bit for the evening considering you'll be taking on a little... brat at the end of the night." The words monster or demon had been hanging in Iruka's mind but he decided not to use them from now on. He didn't really fancy another kunai in the stomach and he still had a punishment to look forward to from the Hokage.. and the Hokage had a very twisted mind when it came to punishments. Somehow he had an unnatural talent for finding something _horrible_ yet completely fair and reasonable to punish you with.

"How on earth did you even think up something like that anyway?"

"Do you remember when you found it necessary to embarrass me in front of my new class?"

"Yeah"

"I wouldn't do that again if I were you, I might just be tempted to use what my mind comes up with on the guy who actually inspired it instead of on a mission."

Kakashi couldn't see it but he was sure Iruka was giving him his mischievous grin underneath his mask. A grin that his students were learning fast to fear more than anything else.

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The third Hokage of the leaf was once again sitting at his desk looking at his two assassins. Students. Sons. He was glad he'd decided to move Naruto to his chambers because one of the young men in front of him was about to blow the roof off for what he had to say.

"First of I'd like to congratulate you on the success of the mission, once again you have saved the village from a disaster." Sarutobi always found it necessary to acknowledge their work. They pretty much saved the village single handedly on a regular basis and no one even knew.

"Now I want you to hear me out until I finish, that especially goes for you Iruka."

Iruka straightened his back. '_Fuck, here it comes_'

"I've made a decision, I will not take it back so there will be no arguments on it... from either of you. I have decided that as of this night you will both be responsible for not only Naruto's upbringing but his training as well. Considering his natural talent and progress I think he is an excellent candidate for Akutenshi."

"WHAT!" Two stunned men turned their heads to the source of the outburst who surprisingly was coming from the dog masked Anbu who had just ripped off his mask and was by the looks of it about ready to rip the Hokage a new one as well, if his partner hadn't reached out his hand and stopped him.

"Hokage-sama I know Naruto has potential but Akutenshi? He's only 5 can't the training wait for a few years? He's not ready."

"Kakashi.. as unbelievable as it might seem I do know how you feel. This was not an easy decision to make but it's for the best, for all of you. I am asking you to train him but above all else I want you to care for him. He will be living with you in your safe house, next year he will enter the academy as a normal student, in your class Iruka, as part of his cover and finally, to ease your mind, he will not be initiated into Akutenshi until both of you deem him fit to. All other aspects and decisions of his training and upbringing I will leave to you two. Are my orders clear?"

"Yes Hokage sama." Kakashi bit out.

"Iruka, you've been awfully quiet." Sarutobi looked at the younger of the two Akutenshi members.

Iruka was in fact having a nasty struggle inside his head. The logical part of his brain kept telling him that it was a good idea, the child needed to be trained to the best of his abilities for the good of the village. The emotional part of his brain how ever was screaming bloody murder and there was no way in hell he would let that monster into his _safe_ house. Both parts were in agreement thought that the small part of his brain that was saying they shouldn't do that to a child should be stomped on and told to shut the hell up. Yet again, a completely horrible punishment but one that could not be argued against in any way because the Hokage was right.

"Hokage sama. I would like to make it clear that I do not like this arrangement at all, but seeing as you've already made the decision and I have to admit that it's the right thing to do I will do as you ask. If that is all I will bid you farewell. Kakashi, I'll meet you at home." And with that Iruka promptly teleported out of the office.

The Sandaime turned to the sole remaining occupant of his office.

"It's been a long night Kakashi. Naruto is asleep in my chambers, go take him home. You can come to my office tomorrow to do the paper work."

And so Sarutobi was left alone in his office with no company other than his regrets from the past and three pictures of heroes who had spent or given up their lives to make Konoha a better place.

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In a house on the boarder of Konoha village a figure appeared seemingly out of thin air carrying a small child. Naruto had finally arrived at the place he would forever think of as home from then on. It was the Akutenshi safe house.

Both Kakashi and Iruka had apartments in town to go with their every day lives and the safe house had originally only been intended as sort of a base for the Akutenshi but almost as soon as the base was set up 2 futons appeared there as well and the house had become their home as well as their operation headquarters. To keep up appearances Kakashi and Iruka would basically use their apartments like an entrance to their house. The would walk in and then teleport there or teleport to their apartments and walk out.

Kakashi soon realized there would have to be some changes made in the base soon, most importantly a new futon would have to be purchased. But for now they would have to make due with what they had and so Kakashi laid his sleeping bundle down next to him on his mattress, falling asleep gently cradling the boy in his arms.

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**Reviews are not needed but always appreciated. Thank you for reading**


	4. A new day

**Updates might go slowly after this chapter, I have a ton of school work I need to take care of and finals are coming up soon. I'll do my best though.**

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A new day.

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In their safe house at the edge of the village of Konoha the Akutenshi were just beginning to wake up for their day to day life. Since it was a Saturday Iruka didn't have classes but he had an early mission desk duty and Kakashi had a meeting with the Hokage among other minor things.

The day started out normally enough for Iruka. He managed to kill another alarm clock by throwing a kunai at it and had the usual fight between his logical self, who told him to get his ass out of bed and go to work, and his personal self, who grumbled fuck it I was up late yesterday saving the village and I deserve a break. As always his logical self won and Iruka reluctantly crawled out of bed and headed for his salvation, the coffee machine. If Iruka ever found the person who invented mornings he'd use several creative methods to make the person wish they'd never been born, and Iruka could be very creative.

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Kakashi on the other hand was having a rather strange morning. Contrary to popular belief Kakashi was a morning person, one of those annoying once who didn't even need coffee to wake up and greet the world with a cheery attitude... not that Kakashi ever did that in the mornings, he was to busy greeting the dead to acknowledge the living. People just always assumed he slept in because he always showed up late.

This morning was vastly different however. Kakashi was trying his best to keep on sleeping even though it was an hour since his usual start of the day, it was being made difficult by tiny fingers poking him repeatedly and a small voice whining.

"Doggie... Doggie, I'm hungry"

'_Don't open your eyes, what ever you do just don't open your eyes. If you don't see them their not there._' Kakashi fought a losing battle with his brain to forget the bright blue puppy dog eyes that had tormented him during the night and made it nearly impossible for him to get any sleep. He'd had a rather tiring night and it hadn't had anything to do with his mission, it had been much worse.

At 4 am, an hour after they got home and Kakashi had just managed to fall asleep, he was woken up by a small hand on his shoulder shaking him awake. When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw were those clear blue eyes looking at him pleadingly and a small voice asking for a glass of water. When Kakashi finally managed to get his mouth to refuse he was already standing in the kitchen with a glass of water and no clue as to why on earth he couldn't say no to the kid.

At 5 something am Kakashi woke up to some frantic tugging on his arm and a desperate little voice asking where the bathroom was, little blue eyes looking at him in obvious discomfort and again before Kakashi knew it he was standing outside the bathroom door staring at his hand who just a moment ago had been holding a much smaller one down the hall.

At about 6 am Kakashi had been woken up by a kick in the stomach and a punch in the face. Naruto was having a nightmare kicking and flailing his arms everywhere to fight off some unseen terror. After waking him up Kakashi had spent about 15 minutes soothing the hurt and fright out of those eyes.

Kakashi finally moved but to Naruto's frustration he only stuck his head under the pillow. '_It's 7 am, Iruka should be up..I wonder if he's had his coffee...Well it's worth a try_'

"Naruto" He stuck his head a bit from underneath his cover. "go to the kitchen and ask Iruka to give you something"

"Iruka?"

"Kuroneko, his name's Iruka."

Kakashi listened to the sound of little feet running down the hall. Now that was a sound that he would never have imagined hearing in the base house, or the house in general as such. Before the house had become Akutenshi's base of operations it had belonged to him, still did legally. It had been in his family for generations but he hadn't lived in it for a long time before he and Iruka moved in there a few years ago.

It had been the most perfect location for their base, the house had been abandoned for a long time so people didn't pay much attention to it. It was in a nearly empty part of town so any noises or activity would be less noticed. Had big walls surrounding the lawn so people couldn't see what was going on inside the house or the yard. And most importantly Kakashi owned it so if anyone ever found out they were hanging out there no one would think twice about it.

Kakashi hadn't liked the idea at first, the house held too many bad memories, he couldn't say he'd had a happy childhood there. But by hearing those little footsteps echoing down the hall, remembering the tiny frame cuddled next to his during the night and seeing those sapphire blue eyes filled with so much life despite all the hardship they had seen Kakashi couldn't help but think that maybe the house would finally see brighter days. He didn't know why but it made him happy in an odd way. With that happy thought in his mind Kakashi stuck his head under the pillow again and pulled the blanket over his head too, maybe if they couldn't see him he wasn't there.

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Iruka's sleep filled mind was staring at a little blob of something that was at the moment jumping up and down in front of him. He was standing barefoot in the kitchen dressed only in loose pajama pants, his hair half way out of yesterdays ponytail which he had forgotten to remove before going to sleep.

Before he got interrupted by this new phenomenon in his kitchen he had been holding his ramen bowl and staring at the coffee machine cursing it to work faster. He couldn't really figure out what this new thing in his kitchen was apart from the fact that it had distinctive yellow and blue colors mixed into the whole blur, it was demanding food and Iruka had a feeling somewhere in the back of his mind that he should dislike this jumping blob of energy. But since Iruka hadn't had his coffee, or soldier pills in case of missions, his brilliant mind hadn't turned on and Iruka did the first thing his groggy braincells told him to do. He handed the little blob his untouched ramen bowl and kept waiting for the coffee machine to finish making his first fix for the day. Now Iruka was a very skilled ninja. If needed or in danger he could go from asleep to fully alert in a fracture of a second but when at home or on an easy mission Iruka's brain usually decided to sleep in.

Finally Iruka was gulping down the first love of his life, coffee, and getting ready to slurp down the second love of his life.. except he soon realized he'd given the second love of his life to a little blob... that he could now clearly recognize as a little blond brat. After a quick search in the kitchen he also realized that the ramen bowl the kid had inhaled had been the last one.

Iruka's mental dialog of curses was interrupted by a small hand pulling on his pajama pants and completely stopped when he looked down into the child's eyes. He decided to act nice to the kid seeing as how he would be raising and training him from then on but he couldn't help his own eyes hardening when he saw the whisker marks underneath the boy's eyes.

"Yes" Iruka managed to bite out almost nicely.

"Iruka, can I have more of what ever that was?"

"Uh.. What? Ramen.. you've never had ramen before?" Iruka just looked at Naruto with amazement, how could someone never have had ramen before.

"No Jijii wanted me to eat rabbit food but I don't like that, I like this ramen though can I have some more?"

"I'm sorry I don't have any more.. just ask Kakashi to give you some when you go out later."

"Kakashi?"

"Yeah, Doggie or what ever you call him.. Where is he anyway?"

"He didn't want to wake up, he said you should feed me"

"Right of course he did" Iruka grumbled. "Alright I'll take you out to my favorite ramen stand in a little bit, how does that sound.. I just have to get ready and take care of something first."

Iruka definitely didn't know why he had said that. He tried to tell himself that it was probably just because he had been planning on going there anyway since the kid had eaten his breakfast and it would probably annoy Kakashi, plus he was assigned to take care of the kid and taking care of him meant feeding him so it was perfectly explainable. It definitely didn't have anything to do with those bright cheery blue eyes looking at him pleadingly.

He did know however that he didn't like how his morning was turning out and decided to take it out on the cause of his newfound problems.

Which is why Kakashi woke up a few minutes later to cold water being thrown over him and Iruka shouting that he should.

"Get the fuck up and do your fucking duty since you wanted the little hellion so much in the first place."

'_Yep definitely hasn't had enough coffee_'

Kakashi's reply was cut short when said hellion jumped into his lap screaming.

"We're going out for ramen!"

Kakashi fell back down on his now soaked futon and pillow with a deep groan.

"Not you too." '_I hate ramen._'

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When Kakashi jumped into the Hokage's office through one of the windows 20 minutes later Sarutobi was sitting on his couch, puffing his pipe and looking intently on the pictures of the 4 hokages that hung on the wall, either that or he was just deep in though Kakashi couldn't tell which. The Hokage showed no signs of noticing his entry but Kakashi knew better.

The Third had the strange habit of acting surprised when ever someone burst into his office or came unannounced when he could clearly sense them coming a mile away, he wasn't the Hokage for nothing. Kakashi supposed he did it to make the people who came to see him more comfortable, no one likes sneaking in somewhere and getting a "Ah there you are." or bursting in and getting a "Oh welcome, what can I do for you." That's not how it goes. People expect a "Oh I didn't see you come in." And a "What is the meaning of this!"

But just to play along Kakashi cleared his throat before he walked over to the Hokage and sat down in a chair on the other side of the coffee table. The Hokage as usual seemed to snap out of his staring and focused on Kakashi.

"Ah Kakashi, I wasn't expecting you so early, everything alright?"

"I had a hard night and a strange morning, thought I'd take care of this thing before my day gets any worse."

"I see, Naruto give you any trouble?" If Kakashi didn't know better he could have sworn the Hokage was smirking around his pipe... but then again Kakashi knew him quite well and it wouldn't surprise him if he was.

"Nothing I couldn't handle." Kakashi retorted stubbornly.

"Well of that I am sure, but I'll give you one advice all the same. Don't give Naruto a lot of water during the night, a few sips is more than enough if he's thirsty, any more than that and he'll have to use the bathroom and all that restlessness during the night comes out in his sleep."

Kakashi had the uncomfortable feeling the Hokage had been watching him sleep in his crystal ball but surely the Hokage was above using it to spy so closely on his ninjas.

"Well since you are here there are some things we need to discuss. I've been thinking about this very thoroughly this morning and I've made some decisions on what we are going to do regarding Naruto." Sarutobi put his pipe away, stood up and beckoned Kakashi to follow him to his desk. When they were both seated again he handed the younger man some papers and documents.

"This is everything you and Iruka will need in order to take care of Naruto. There will be two serious changes in both of your lives with this responsibility and I want you to listen before you object." Sarutobi waited for Kakashi's little nod of acceptance before he continued.

"First of all I know that you were the one to ask to look after Naruto but I have decided to give full legal guardian ship of him to Iruka." At this Kakashi's head snapped up from the papers a look of utter surprise in his one visible eye but he didn't say anything so Sarutobi continued on.

"One reason for this is because of your ranks, Iruka is a chuunin and an academy teacher so he will be in the village almost all the time and you as a jounin will have to go out on missions. The council will want someone who can keep an eye on the kid at all times and would never accept you as a full guardian. You will how ever be given the mission to protect the kid so no one will find it weird for you to be seen with him on a regular basis. You and Iruka can also make it public that you are friends if you want to, it won't jeopardize your cover at this point since you will basically be working together officially as Kakashi and Iruka now. The second reason why I am doing this is for Iruka. I know he doesn't like Naruto at this time but I believe that he will learn to care for the boy eventually. Iruka takes his responsibilities very seriously and I think that by giving him full legal guardianship of Naruto it will push him to take even better care of him than he otherwise would."

"I think I have to agree with you on that one." Kakashi stated. "I think Iruka has decided to treat Naruto the best he can but I don't know how far that reaches, give him legal guardianship over him and Iruka would even bite _your_ head off if you looked at the kid wrong.. I've seen him in protective mode over his students and it's scarier than seeing him on _duty_." If they ever had to refer to Akutenshi work when they were not in uniform and using their own names they would simply refer to it as duty, they could never be too careful in a village full of ninjas.

"Good we agree then. The second big change is that I am pulling you out of Anbu. You will mainly be responsible for Naruto's physical training and I believe it will take a lot of time and energy to do so and since I can't very well make you stop being you or having you drop your other _duties_ it was the best course to take. Iruka will then mainly be responsible for teaching Naruto and as such he doesn't have to leave Anbu but he can if he so chooses."

"I see, if you think that is for the best then I won't argue with you on this."

Sarutobi smiled. "Your being awfully agreeable today."  
"Well like I said, it's been a strange day so far. But I'm not the one you have to worry about in this I think. I will do anything it takes in order to look after Naruto.. I don't know what my friend will do about it though.. not in this case."

"He'll learn, just give him time. The two of them are together now aren't they?"

"Yeah.. Iruka had the brilliant idea to introduce him to ramen, they were headed to Ichiraku's when I left."

"Ah I take it young Naruto liked it, he was forever complaining about the food I was feeding him."

"I think it's going to be hard to get him to eat anything else ever again."

"Well, that's one thing they'll have in common then."

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Iruka was indeed making his way to Ichiraku's ramen stand with Naruto following close behind, although the way there seemed longer than it did every other day he'd been there. Iruka was getting uncomfortable stares from a few people but it was nothing compared to what he saw them doing to the kid. People would glare daggers at him, verbally abuse him, spit on him and every now and then Iruka could hear the kid falling down after either being pushed or tripped to the ground.

Now Iruka had decided to treat the kid somewhat nicely since he was pretty much stuck with him but he'd told himself he didn't much care what other people did to the brat. He was having an inner struggle with himself over it at the moment though. On one hand he still felt the same about the boy, he could still clearly see the signs of the demon who killed his parents in him. But on the other hand he was just a kid, and he went through this apparently every day and never did anything to stand up for himself.

When they finally made it to the ramen stand Iruka was oddly relieved that Teuchi, the owner, cheerfully served them their ramen. Iruka had tried to shop a little at the market and had been quite pissed off when most of the stall owners refused to sell him anything because he was with the boy. He didn't know if he was angrier over the fact that he wasn't able to buy food because he was with the brat or at the stall owners for refusing to sell him because of the boy.

Iruka was seriously getting a headache from all this turmoil going on inside his head and when his ramen arrived he poked at it uninterestingly for a while. Because of this he was able to see the other patron at the place stand up and get ready to leave, no doubt offended by the company. But before the man made his way out of the stall he leaned over and spit into Naruto's bowl. And that was it, Iruka didn't quite know what to do but he knew he had to do something, Naruto just defeatedly pushed his bowl away like he had just decided he wasn't hungry anymore and nothing had happened. But to Iruka's immense surprise before he could do anything Teuchi grabbed Naruto's bowl and hurled it at the mans head.

"Don't ever show your face in my stall again!" He shouted at the stunned guy who bolted as soon as the shock wore off. After the man was gone Teuchi turned to Naruto with a big smile on his face.

"Now look what I've done, I seem to have spilled your bowl. How about I give you a nice bowl of miso ramen to make up for that one hmm?"

Naruto could only nod his head numbly, that was the second person in only one day to stand up for him.

When Naruto was busy slurping down his new bowl Iruka leaned over the counter to talk to the older man. The guy had lost his only son in the Kyuubi attack and to see him do something like this for Naruto made Iruka's inner thoughts go into turmoil again.

"Do you know who that kid is?" He asked the stall owner when he walked by.

Teuchi stopped and looked at the little boy. "Yeah, I know who he is."

"Then why? How can you treat him so nicely?"

The old man looked at Iruka with a knowing glint in his eyes. " You know I used to be like that man. It was a lot easier to hate and blame someone for the death of my son than to deal with the hurt of losing him. And then I saw the boy and I tried to keep hating him, tried to see him only as the.. _burden_ he carries but soon found that it was utterly useless. All I kept seeing was the Fourth coming in here almost every single day beaming with joy because he was about to be a father, talking about how he couldn't wait to teach his child everything he knew, not about the way of the ninja but about life, said he couldn't wait until he would be old enough for him to bring him to my stall to get his first bowl of ramen." Teuchi looked hard at Iruka before he continued.

"And do you know what I see when I look at that boy now. I see a little child who has a burden that no one should rightfully carry. I see a child who because of that burden gets shunned, beaten and mistreated every day of his life when in fact people should be helping him. I see a little boy not so much unlike the boy you used to be when you were younger, all alone in the world just waiting for someone to acknowledge them for who they really are." With that said Teuchi left Iruka and walked out back to unload some crates.

Iruka was speechless, he hated to admit it but he was beginning to think he was wrong about the kid, he still had mixed emotions about him but Teuchi was at least right about one thing, the kid sure could use some help dealing with the villagers.

"Naruto" Iruka began hesitantly. The boy stopped inhaling his food and looked at him.

"Why don't you ever stand up for yourself, the Hokage said you were strong enough to be chuunin now and you still do nothing when they beat you."

Naruto looked down at his bowl again like it held all the answers.

"I know I shouldn't know this but I know why they don't like me. They call me a monster because of what I have inside of me. I don't know if they are right and having Kyuu in me makes me a monster or not, but a monster to me is someone who picks on someone weaker than they are just because they can. If I defend myself or avoid their beatings they just get madder and if I would fight back and actually hurt someone they would see me as even more of a monster. But I don't want to hurt anyone. I believe that the monsters who attack me can become good people if they try, if I can believe that then maybe that means I can become a good person too, so maybe I won't always be a monster. I want to become a great ninja like you and Kakashi so I can protect this village too." Naruto looked at Iruka with bright determination shining in his eyes.

"I want to be like Jijii and my dad, I want to become Hokage so I can look after the village they love and loved so much."

"Naruto.. you're not a monster." And Iruka realized when he said those words that he was actually beginning to believe them himself. Iruka hated to admit it but this little boy sitting next to him, whisker marks and all, was actually just that.. a little boy.. and Iruka was having a hard time imagining him as anything else.

When the two of them had finished their breakfast they made their way to the Hokage tower where Iruka would drop Naruto off with Kakashi before he began his shift at the mission office. The way to the tower seemed infinitely shorter than the way to the ramen stand. Iruka's mind was clear and for the first time in a long time he felt like a burden was lifted of his shoulders. In his hand was another much smaller one and Iruka didn't care about the glares they got this time, he simply gave his best glare back and kept on walking.

It wasn't much but it was a start.

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**Reviews are not needed but always appreciated. Thank you for reading.**


	5. Old and new relationships

**Noogie** noogies are performed by placing the victim in a headlock and using the middle knuckles of the fore and middle fingers to cause friction by rubbing them across the surface of the skull quickly and firmly

**Koharu and Homura** are the council members most often seen in Naruto. They are the old woman and man often seen arguing with Tsunade.

**Gaki ** Informal term meaning "brat" or "young punk"

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A couple of months had gone by since Kakashi and Iruka had become Naruto's guardians and although a lot had happened in that time things were finally getting into some kind of a routine. Kakashi had quit Anbu and started training Naruto in advanced taijutsu and ninjutsu and the beginning of genjutsu in his spare time, focusing mainly on taijutsu and close range combat skills.

Iruka hadn't had to leave Anbu but did so anyway since his Anbu partner had quit, he promised the Hokage though that he would help out with seals and traps if they ever needed it. Instead Iruka was helping the Hokage more out in the office and taking on more mission desk duties along with teaching Naruto.

Naruto, being a genin already and having been taught by the hokage himself, had a pretty good knowledge and skill in the basics of ninja training but Iruka worked with him on them anyway. Iruka was a master in ninja basics, which was quickly making him one of the best teachers in the academy despite his young age and the short time he had worked there, and as such he knew that if you had excellent knowledge of the basics everything that followed after would be a lot easier to learn and master.

Along with the basics Iruka was also teaching Naruto about seals and traps, strategy, long range combat and increasing his knowledge. Iruka had at first found this to be pretty hopeless because Naruto more often than not behaved like the little kid that he was and didn't seem to pay attention, remember what he had learned or even understand what Iruka was talking about, the only time Naruto seemed to learn anything or pay attention was when Iruka was teaching him long range combat moves. But after observing him for a while Iruka had finally understood what the problem was.

It wasn't that Naruto was incapable of learning or understanding the complex things Iruka was teaching him, it was just that Iruka's way of teaching and Naruto's way of learning things weren't matching. Iruka had started of by just explaining things, reading and showing Naruto graphs and pictures while Naruto squirmed in his seat looking like his mind was miles away. It wasn't until Iruka observed Kakashi training Naruto that the problem hit him. Kakashi had been teaching Naruto to climb up the wall of their base house using chakra focused into his feet. He had explained it to him 2 times with little effort until Naruto asked him to show it to him. Kakashi had then shown him how he did it and then walked Naruto through the process, after which Naruto had managed to climb up half the wall before falling.

Despite being a prodigy Naruto was essentially a 5 year old boy and although he could understand the majority of what Iruka was teaching him there were still some vocabulary difficulties and he got easily distracted and restless by sitting still and listening for long periods of time. Naruto also learned things better by seeing them done and then repeating them rather than hearing an explanation on how to do them.

Iruka had therefore started training Naruto by having him actually do seals and setting and dismantling traps and to increase his knowledge Iruka plaid games with him and made him do puzzles.

Things had also gotten better between the two men and their little charge, although Kakashi and Naruto hadn't really had any difficulties to begin with. Kakashi mostly took care of Naruto when they were at home and not training. He would often play games with him and help him with the puzzles Iruka had given him, talk to him about things that didn't have anything to do with being a ninja or their training and simply just spend time with the child even if they weren't doing anything.

The Fourth had often done this with Kakashi after his father died and even more after Obito died but it wasn't until after his old Sensei was gone himself that Kakashi found out how important it had been to him and how much he had needed it despite how many times he had told his Sensei that he didn't need a babysitter. Simply knowing that someone was there for you if you ever needed it was the best gift anyone could get, he supposed it was the reason why he and Iruka were such good friends, they were always there if the other needed it and so he decided to do the same for Naruto.

And although the house now had more and more stuff for Naruto like extra pairs of clothes, various toys and, to Kakashi's immense frustration, more ramen than your average supermarket, one thing had not been purchased... Well Iruka had purchased it about a week after Naruto moved in and Kakashi had intended on having him use it, honestly he did, but after an hour had passed since they went to bed Kakashi had found himself cuddling a little bundle of soft pajamas and blond hair on a futon that was much to small for his tall frame and the new futon had been swiftly returned to the store the next day. Kakashi, being very good at lying, told himself it was only practical since the kid would be sleeping on his futon every night anyway and tried not to think of the fact that he had been the one to move to the boy's side during the night and not the other way around.

Iruka was getting along better with the boy, although their relationship was still a bit strained. It had been decided that Naruto would accompany him on all his duties except when he was teaching at the academy, Naruto would spend that time training with Kakashi or spending it with the Hokage if Kakashi was on a missions. This had mainly been done for appearances since Iruka had been officially named Naruto's legal guardian and as a single guy caring for a 5 year old child it was only natural that he couldn't leave the child alone at home and no daycare center would accept him, but both Kakashi and the Hokage knew that this was also needed to strengthen the relationship between Iruka and Naruto. Despite this Kakashi could often be found in the mission room playing with Naruto or bugging Iruka since he had officially been appointed Naruto's protector.

And although Naruto still got on Iruka's nerves he had become incredibly protective of the boy. Iruka could do little about the bad looks the boy got but anyone who dared to lay a hand on the boy or speak badly about him while Iruka was around would quickly find themselves on the receiving end of Iruka's legendary temper and, if the offense had been especially bad, found themselves the victims of some nasty, although never harmful, accidents or pranks. Although none of them would ever be traceable back to Iruka.

Iruka had also been quite surprised to find that most of his friends and acquaintances didn't react badly to the kid. Kotetsu and Izumo had been a bit reluctant at first because they weren't sure how Iruka himself felt about the kid, but after seeing Iruka literally kick a Jounin out of the mission office for tripping the boy they warmed up to him and would often allow Naruto to help them carry some documents to the Hokage or other small tasks.

Genma had simply shrugged and commented offhandedly that he'd always known Iruka was the mothering type but he supposed Iruka could have found a better father figure than Kakashi. Iruka had shut him up by replying that Genma had actually been his first choice but he'd soon realized that the boy didn't actually need two mothers.

Anko had winked at Iruka and told him that if he ever needed some grown up time he knew were to find her and then went off to terrify Naruto.

Asuma's reaction wasn't really a surprise, he already knew the kid since his father, the Third, had spent so much time with him, and Asuma himself had looked after the kid from time to time. He'd told Iruka that he was happy that someone was finally going to give the kid a stable home.

Iruka wasn't sure about Mizuki, he knew the man hated the kid almost obsessively but he still treated the kid kindly, he supposed he should be happy about it but something in his mind told him to keep an eye on Mizuki.

And so things were finally looking up in Naruto's life. He had a home, two new friends who looked after him and fewer and fewer people were directly treating him badly because of them.

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Kakashi walked into the kitchen of their base house to find Iruka, who was sitting at the kitchen table polishing and going over his weapons. He was dressed only in his boxers and his hair was loose, his bare feet tapping along with the song he was humming while he systematically went over every weapon looking for flaws.

"Che, I still don't understand how, out of the two of us, people still think of me as the huge pervert and you as the blushing innocent schoolboy."

"It's quite simple, while I do enjoy wearing little clothing at home I don't go prancing around town like that. And since when is it perverted to sit at home in your underwear?"

"Since I found out that you also like to steal my books and read them while _prancing_ around the house in your underwear, and really I know we're good friends but do I always have to see so _much_ of you?"

"Oh quit complaining, you know you like it." Iruka smirked. "And doesn't it say in one of your books somewhere that if you have it you should flaunt it?"

"I really think that was referring to girls Iruka."

Kakashi easily dodged the kunai that came flying at his head.

"So if you're not here to admire me then what do you want, weren't you training Naruto?"

"He's outside doing some stamina building exercises, although Kami knows he probably doesn't need it at the moment with his chakra amount. I came here because I wanted to ask your opinion on something."

"Alright, fire away."

"I heard from the other Jounins that the Chuunin exams should be coming up soon, in about a month or two if what I heard is correct. They're in Suna this time and I think we should try to get permission for Naruto to take them. As best as I can see the Hokage was right and Naruto is easily at Chuunin level and I see no reason to have him wait to take them even if it won't go on a public record, plus it would be better for him to take the exam in another country because of that reason. I just wanted to know what you thought about it."

Iruka put down the kunai he was polishing and leaned back in his chair.

"Well he does certainly have the talent to become a chuunin, I agree with you on that. I'd like to be able to say that he's too young for the exam and, I'm not going to lie to you, a small part of me still resents the fact that he's allowed to be a ninja but no matter how I look at it having him take the exam now would be the smartest thing to do. He'll definitely have to take it in another country and you never seem to know just which country will be hosting the damn thing, Konoha hosted it for 5 years straight around the time I took it so having him wait might turn out to be a bad thing, plus you took the exam around his age even though it was different back then." Iruka's face became more serious. "It's not going to be easy though. We'll have to get the council to agree to it, finding two people to be on his team is going to be hard since they or their parents are more than likely to be against it, not to mention the fact that they would have to keep quiet about it afterwards, and since he is so young he is bound to attract a lot of attention during the exam, which isn't what we want. I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with you but we should talk it over with the Hokage before we proceed to the council with it."

Kakashi hmmed and nodded in agreement and was about to add something when an explosion could be heard from outside, making them both jump.

"What the hell was that." Iruka looked at Kakashi for an explanation.

"Maahh.." Kakashi rubbed his head sheepishly. "It's probably the exercise I gave Naruto. I had him holding a chakra thread connected to an exploding tag, he has to constantly pour chakra into it in an equal amount in order for it not to go off. It improves his chakra use and can build stamina."

"You had him do WHAT! He's 5 years old you moron." Iruka jumped out of his chair, grabbed Kakashi by the collar of his vest and dragged him behind himself while he ran outside, scolding him the whole way. "Are you INSANE, you don't give explosive notes to kids! Even I don't give them to him when we are practicing traps, you could have just used a chakra note or at the very least a wind seal or something.. something that doesn't BLOW UP. What if he got hurt? Did you think about that? Kami-sama what if he's out there in tiny little pieces."

When they got to the back yard Naruto was indeed perfectly fine. When Iruka burst out of the house, legs bruised from running into a coffee table, half of his hair standing on end where he had been pulling it with his free hand and face flushed from running, still holding onto a slightly blue Kakashi, Naruto looked up from the ground he'd been sitting on and smiled at them.

"Did the explosion worry you? I'm sorry but the exercise was so booooring, can I do something else? Ne, ne Iruka-sensei can I practice setting traps with those notes?" Naruto was almost jumping up and down with excitement.

"Naruto." Iruka finally let go of Kakashi and ran over, grabbed Naruto and nearly turned him upside down looking for injuries. "Are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere? Shit are you crying, why are you crying? Where does it hurt? Did I do something to you? Say something?"

Naruto had indeed started crying.

"N-no I'm not hurt, I-I'm fine."

"Then why are you crying, tell me what's wrong."

Little hands reached up and pulled Iruka down to a kneeling position before a tiny frame curled into his arms.

"It-it's just that.. no one's ever really cared if I was hurt before." Naruto mumbled into Iruka's neck. "The hokage used to get sad when I was hurt but I always felt that it wasn't because he cared but because he felt guilty. I know Iruka-sensei doesn't really like me all that much but you've been really kind to me lately and now I feel like Iruka-sensei cares for me at least a little bit."

Iruka tightened his hold of the boy and picked him up of the ground.

"Don't say silly things like that, I don't dislike Naruto-kun.. even though he can be really annoying in the mornings and eats most of my ramen." Iruka teased and tickled Naruto's side. "That's a sign that I like you right there, I don't just give anyone my ramen you know. Come on now, if you stop crying I'll take you to Ichiraku's for ramen, does that sound good?"

Naruto nodded his head while still nuzzling Iruka's neck. "O-ok."

Iruka hugged Naruto a little tighter. _'Naruto, my heart might not be ready to say it out loud. But I do care for you'_

"Alright let's go then."

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Kakashi watched his best friend embrace the kid whole heartedly for the first time since they met. The two people he treasured most in his life now were finally getting along. It made him really happy, not only for Naruto but for Iruka too. The Kyuubi attack had greatly affected Iruka and even though his life had gradually become better and he had made a lot of friends along the way Kakashi knew that there was a small part of Iruka's heart that was still filled with the darkness and despair that the Kyuubi attack had caused. Seeing his friend worry and comfort the boy who contained the cause of Iruka's misfortune made Kakashi think that maybe the child's future wouldn't be so bad after all.

_'Maybe we'll be able to make it alright, we'll do the best we can, hopefully that's enough... Sensei.'_

Kakashi was yanked out of his thoughts when the ground suddenly disappeared from under his feet. He looked up at Iruka who was standing over him still holding Naruto.

"YOU! I'm not finished with you. We're going to take Naruto out for ramen now and then we'll go to talk to the Hokage. After that we're going to seriously rethink your training methods."

Kakashi leaned his head back again and looked up at the clouds lazily moving across the sky, smiling a little to himself. _'Overreacting like usual. Well at least it made Iruka loosen up a bit more.'_

"Well are you coming or what." Iruka called to him from the back door.

"Yeah, yeah. Take it easy _sensei_, maybe I hit my head when I fell down and am feeling a bit dizzy, did you think about that?"

"Personally I think a hit on the head would be exactly what you need, it might fix what ever is wrong with it."

"Ouch, that hurt more than the fall you know... and remember to put some clothes on before you go outside you hentai"

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Naruto was having one of the best days of his life. He'd gotten as much ramen as he could eat at Ichiraku's and he was now waiting outside the Hokage office with Genma. The Hokage's secretary was supposed to take care of him but the woman had never liked him and he had been getting really bored sitting outside with nothing to do while the secretary gave him mean glances. Genma had come along wanting to talk to the Hokage and had decided to keep Naruto company when he found out he was busy.

"So Naru-chan, what's Mommy-Iruka and Kakashi doing with the Hokage that's so special that you have to sit outside?"

Naruto really liked Genma. After Kakashi he was the most fun to play with and he always took the time to play or talk to him when Naruto came to the mission room with Iruka, even if he was on duty.

"I can't tell you, it's a secret." Naruto whispered.

"Oh really." Genma whispered back. He made an exaggerated show of making sure no one was listening to them before he leaned down and continued. "Not even me, come on you can trust your friend Genma."

"Nope, not even Genma-san. Even though I trust Genma-san I promised I wouldn't tell anyone and I will never go back on my word."

"Is that right. Is that your nindo?"

Naruto looked up from the senbon needle Genma had given him "What's a nindo?"

"Your ninja way. It's like a promise you make to yourself in order to become a better ninja."

Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment "Do you have a nindo Genma-san?"

"Yeah I do. Always do my best so I will never have to look back with regret. Valuing your team is also important, Kakashi taught me that one."

"Kakashi taught you that?" Genma saw how Naruto's eyes lit up at the mention of the copy nin.

"Mmm, teamwork is very important to Kakashi. You could say that's his nindo in a way."

"Genma-san.."

"What?"

"Is it possible to have more than one nindo?"

"Sure, I can't see why not."

"Then I'm going to follow Genma-san's and Kakashi's nindo as well as my own. I'll always do my best and value my team, and I won't ever go back on my words" Naruto grinned.

Genma laughed. "Your a good kid. Always remember that, no matter what anyone else tells you." At those words Genma glared at the secretary who had been looking at them with disdain.

"Also when we're hanging out like this you can just call me Genma, no need to be so formal with me. Although I wouldn't think the guy who calls the Hokage Jijii and gets away with it would be able to _be_ formal."

"Are you making fun of my manners? The Hokage taught me manners and I'm sure he wouldn't like for it to be implied that he's not a good teacher."

"Wha.." Genma actually dropped the senbon needle from his mouth in surprise. "Hey, hey. I didn't say that, don't you go telling him I said that you little brat." Genma grabbed Naruto in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

"Ow hey, stop that meanie." Naruto rubbed his head and glared half heartedly at Genma before he went back to playing with the senbon.

Genma took his own senbon from the floor and twirled in in his mouth while he watched Naruto.

_'That kid sure is something else.'_ It wasn't the first time that Genma had noticed something different about Naruto, the kid sometimes said things and acted in a way that no other 5 year old would. Genma wasn't stupid, he knew that Iruka most likely knew something about it and Kakashi's presence around the kid also confirmed that something was going on. He didn't know if it was that Naruto was a gifted kid or if this had something to do with the Kyuubi, maybe the Hokage had finally given in to the councils wishes to have the kid watched. One thing Genma knew though was that what ever it was it was none of his business unless the people involved decided otherwise.

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Kakashi and Iruka were discussing their options with the Hokage. The Thirds old teammates, Koharu and Homura, had been called in and of course an argument had ensued where the council members refused and the Hokage, Kakashi and Iruka pushed. Kakashi had even threatened to quit being a ninja, he'd been slightly offended that the council members hadn't agreed until Iruka threatened to quit as both a ninja and a teacher if they didn't allow it. Their victory was an empty one though because the condition for Naruto to take part in the exam had been that they had to find him a team and that they wouldn't attract attention.

"That's basically the same as if they had said no" Kakashi growled while pacing back and forth in the Hokage's office. "Discriminating bastards, did you see their faces when they went, if I didn't know that they were too stuck up on the stick in their asses I would say they were smirking"

"Calm down Kakashi, I'm sure we'll think of something" The Hokage decided to play deaf against the insults directed at his old teammates. Sarutobi would take this secret to his grave but sometimes he did wonder what had crawled up their asses and died.

Iruka who had been quietly thinking in a chair in front of the Hokage's desk finally spoke up. "So basically Naruto can't be noticed at the exam and he needs two teammates to go with him... that shouldn't be so hard."

"Not hard! Are you loosing that overactive brain of yours Iruka? Of course people are going to notice him, he's going to be the only 5 year old there! And it's extremely rare that two kids are going to be free to be with him on a team, genin teams have 3 people in them and they usually take the exams together these days." Kakashi stopped pacing and was now standing to the side of the desk, between the Hokage and Iruka, fuming.

"Sarutobi-sensei, are there any teams going to the exams this time?"

"There's only one team going this time and I'm afraid it's not the best team to be going at the same time as Naruto."

"What do you mean"

"It contains Uchiha Itachi. The name Uchiha is enough to attract attention but Itachi-kun is also a very gifted child. Sending Naruto and him to the test at the same time will no doubt cause an even bigger commotion since we will be sending not one but two child prodigies to the test."

"Ah, I see. Well it can't be helped then, we'll just have to play a little dirty."

"What?" Kakashi looked at his friend in shock. "Mr. Rules and Regulations is suggesting we play dirty? Did I really hit my head this bad earlier?"

Iruka glared at Kakashi. The Hokage regarded Iruka thoughtfully before he spoke.

"So what do you suggest."

"Well I think I have a plan that solves all our problems but it's going to require some false documents and what might be considered actual cheating on the exam themselves."

Kakashi stared at his partner. Not only had the guy argued with the council and threatened to leave his job but he was actually talking about forging documents and cheating on an international event, all for a kid he had seriously hated only a few months ago.

"First of all we have to change Naruto's appearance and name slightly. Since I am his legal guardian it wouldn't be against any rules for him to enter the competition as Umino Naruto and I can make a seal that would turn his hair and eye color brown so if anyone asked we could pass him off as a relative of mine. That way, even if people pay a lot of attention to him, he won't be recognized afterwards."

"Hmm, that's acceptable." The Hokage smiled. "So what's the rule breaking crime you want to do?"

"Well since there really is no one who could possibly be on his team we'll just have to _make_ one. Me and Kakashi can henge into teenagers and go with him through the first two parts of the exam. We would make sure not to help him more than a regular team would and then drop out in the final. But in order to do that we would have to forge new documents for our identities.. and somehow trick the council if they decide to look into the team that's going with Naruto."

"I see." The Third leaned back in his chair and took a long drag of his pipe. "Well that doesn't sound so bad. If anything ever comes up I'll just tell them it was a mistake of a senile old fool."

Iruka laughed. "I guess we'll accept that, if we ever get caught we'll of course say that we tricked you into it." He knew that people would be shocked to know that the Hokage would actually go along with a plan like that but it had been a long time since Iruka had gotten to know this side of the Hokage. It had come as quite a shock to the 12 year old Iruka, who was at that time busy trying to fill water balloons with paint, when the Hokage had walked by and commented that it would be much easier to put a little ink in them and then fill them with water. It would be less sticky but still guaranteed to ruin the victims clothes.

"Alright. I'll take care of paperwork, you two just prepare Naruto for the exams. After your new mission that is." Sarutobi sighed. "I'm sorry but the Akutenshi will have to go on a week long mission out of fire country and due to Naruto taking the chuunin exams I'll be busy with the council for some time now so I probably won't be able to look after him while you are gone."

Kakashi and Iruka didn't object even though they strongly wanted to. Akutenshi duty was not to be taken lightly and they knew the council would make the Hokage's life difficult for a while.

"I guess that can't be helped." Kakashi looked at Iruka who had started to rub the scar on his nose, a pure sign that he was stressed in some way. "We'll think of something, don't worry about it."

"Yeah, I guess it can't be helped." Iruka sighed. He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Well if everything is decided I have to leave for the mission office. When will the mission briefing be?"

"Come to my office tomorrow night at 11pm. That should give you time to find a place for Naruto to stay, or someone to look in on him if you can leave him at one of your apartments."

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Genma looked up when the door to the Hokage's office opened and the two council members stepped out. He looked at Naruto who was still busy with the senbon he'd given him, hopefully the council being there didn't mean anything bad for the kid. Genma actually quite liked Naruto, he also quite liked Iruka and didn't want anything bad to happen to either Iruka or the boy.

"Genma?"

"Yeah Naru-chan."

"Will you teach me how to use this?" Naruto held up the senbon he'd been analyzing.

"Sure kid, If Mommy-Iruka allows it that is."

Naruto giggled. "Why do you call Iruka-sensei mommy?"

"Well he's protecting you like a mother would protect it's child."

Naruto looked down at the floor. "Do you really think so?"

Genma smiled warmly at the boy, something he very rarely did, Genma was more of a smirking type. "I know so, I've known Iruka for some time now and I've never seen him fight for anything as much as he fights for you. He has a strong will that man, I'm sure he would never have agreed to be your guardian if he didn't want to. Kakashi really likes you too. He's not much of a people person, he actually works very hard to push people away, but he hangs out with you a lot doesn't he?"

"Yeah." Naruto looked at Genma and smiled. The sad glint behind the smile didn't go unnoticed to him how ever. "I really am lucky to have them, Genma-san too, even though you are a bunch of old perverts."

"OLD! I'm 23 gaki, that's not old."

"So you aren't denying the pervert part?"

"Why you." Genma was about to give Naruto another noogie when the door to the Hokage's office opened again, Iruka walking out this time looking slightly hassled.

"Hey Genma-san, were you looking after Naruto? Thank you so much for that."

"Nahh, don't mention it, I like hanging out with Naru-chan." This time Genma did grab Naruto but instead of giving him a noogie he ruffled his hair. "You heading to the mission office? We have a shift in 10 minutes right?"

"Ah, Yeah we do. We better get going shouldn't we."

"Alright Naru-chan I'll race you to the mission office, last one there has to wear a paper clip in his hair for the rest of the day. Deal?"

"Ok." And with that Naruto raced off towards the mission room. Genma just watched him go before he turned back to Iruka.

"Look, I won't ask what the meeting was about but is everything alright? Naruto isn't in any trouble is he?"

"No, nothing serious at least. It's going to be a little hard but the problem will work itself out so it's nothing to worry about too much. Thank you for asking Genma-san"

"Che, how many times must I tell you guy's to just call me Genma. All this San stuff makes me feel old."

"Yeah, I guess I know how you feel. I'm still getting used to being called sensei. Although Kakashi has decided to make it even harder by embarrassing me with it."

"So you and Kakashi have become good friends?"

Iruka mentally kicked himself, even though he and Kakashi were slowly making their friendship public they had to be careful not to reveal anything strange and Iruka hadn't really been thinking straight after he got out of the meeting, not only had he been calling Kakashi by his first name but he'd actually talked like they were best friends.

"Ah, yeah we've been spending quite some time together since we are both looking after Naruto."

"So I've got a rival for your cute ass do I?"

"No you don't have to worry about that... I-I mean." Iruka blushed furiously _'Shit did I really imply what I think I did.'_ "I mean me and Kakashi are just friends and.. Kami I'm just not thinking straight, please just forget what I said."

"Well of course your not thinking _straight_ Ruka-kun." Genma laughed and ran the rest of the way to the mission room with a fuming Iruka chasing him. He was glad though, maybe he did have a chance after all.

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Genma was getting strange looks from people when they handed in their reports, he supposed it had something to do with the fact that his hair was filled with paper clips but he didn't mind. If people were looking at him funny they weren't glaring at Iruka or Naruto.

It was nearing the end of their shift when disaster walked in. Genma was really glad that Izumo and Kotetsu had decided to take Naruto with them on an errand to the Hokage because he sure didn't need to see what was about to happen. He was filling out some forms when it did, a big burly ninja walked up to the desk, stopped in front of Iruka, reached over the desk and yanked Iruka up by the collar of his vest.

"Well, well if it isn't the demon lover. How does it feel to betray the village? Surely taking care of that _thing_ that attacked us can only be called that."

_'Crap'_ Iruka thought. _'He's too big for me to overpower him without acting out of character'_ Iruka was getting ready to take the beating that was sure to follow when Genma stepped in, he'd forgotten he was there. Genma stabbed his senbon through the guy's wrist, causing him to lose his grip of Iruka. He then grabbed the mans hand, yanked the senbon out again and pulled the guy closer, positioning the senbon inches away from one of the man's eyes.

"You have just assaulted a fellow shinobi, this is your first and only warning. If you don't leave immediately I can promise you you won't like it."

"Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it."

"Well first of all I might just go through with stabbing you in the eye, I'm sure they'll believe two ninjas on government duty rather than a brute like you when we tell them that it was done in self defense. Besides that I will have you taken into custody, which means interrogation with my good friend Ibiki who happens to owe me a favor, and if that's not enough for you then I'm sure you would like to be free in order to get to the hospital to get treatment for the poison that's now running through your body after I stabbed you in the wrist." Genma was in full battle mode by then and the guy swiftly decided not to push his luck and when Genma let him go he almost ran out of there.

"Jeez, look at the coward run eh Iruka. Iruka!"

Genma had turned around to find Iruka slumped on the mission desk, hands covering his head and yanking at his hair.

"Iruka, man are you alright? Did he hurt your head or neck?"

Iruka sat up, a grave look on his face.

"No, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine, come on you can tell me I swear I'll take it seriously. I know I can be a jackass but you can trust me you know that."

Iruka's smile nearly melted Genma's insides before it was again replaced by a look of despair.

"I know that, Genma. I'm just.. a mess. Did you know I used to be like that guy."

"I'm sure that was a long time ago."

"No... no it wasn't... it wasn't at all. Two months ago I was calling Naruto the exact same thing. Demon. Monster. I haven't been treating him badly since I started taking care of him but I haven't exactly been treating him well either. Just this morning he said that he knew I didn't like him."

"Hey don't think like that." Genma sat down in his seat again and put his arm around Iruka. "Do you know what he told me while you were in the meeting? He said he was lucky to have you, and he's right. Don't think so poorly of yourself, anyone who sees you with that kid can see that you take good care of him."

"No I don't." Iruka turned so that Genma was now holding him and put his head on his shoulder. "Kakashi mostly takes care of him when we're not here, they have a much better relationship and I'm really glad for that because it's good for both of them but I can't help but feel jealous as well. On one hand I feel like I'm gaining a family of a sort and on the other hand I feel like I'm losing my best friend to a kid."

Genma was sure that there was much more meaning to what Iruka just said than he should know about so he decided to not mention it in case it made Iruka feel even worse for possibly revealing something he wasn't ready to talk about.

"Now, now. I'm sure it's not as bad as you say, and if it is it's no use crying about it. You just work harder and fix it, you're not the type of guy to just give up without a fight."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm rather pathetic now aren't I?"

"Not at all, I quite like the helpless little Ruka-kun who cuddles me when he's upset."

Iruka nearly fell over in his chair when he pushed himself away, blushing so badly that he thought his head would surely explode from all the blood rushing to his head.

"Shit, I'm so sorry.. I-I-I..." Iruka covered his face with his hands. _'Get a grip Iruka.. how on earth can it be that I, one of the Hokage's greatest assassins, have to blush like a school girl when ever I'm around this guy'_

"Hey, hey don't hide like that. You're too cute when you blush for me to miss it."

"Shut UP Genma!" Iruka glared at him. Genma just smiled his all knowing smile.

"Feeling better?"

"What?.. uhm yeah actually a little bit."

"Anything else bothering you?" You were acting a bit down even before that moron came in."

"Ah, I have to leave on a mission tomorrow that could last up to a week and I have no one to leave Naruto with. Kakashi is leaving on a mission tonight and I don't know how long he will be."

"Is that all, Iruka you ass why didn't you just say so. I'll take care of him."

"What! You will?" Iruka looked at Genma like he'd actually just realized that he was there. Iruka would say that they were friends, Iruka did have a lot of friends, but it was always hard to feel a deep connection with anyone because he always felt like he was lying to his friends even though he didn't really look at his day to day life as just a cover. He really didn't act all that different from what he would normally other than hiding his abilities and he'd never been one to flaunt how smart he really was.

"Of course I will, I'm still on mission leave because of that stupid injury I got on my last mission, not to mention that Raidou is still in the hospital so our group won't be doing anything for a while."

"Oh yeah I'd been meaning to ask you about him, I tried visiting but when I went they said he didn't want any visitors and I've been too busy to try again. How is he?"

Genma sighed. "He got hit pretty badly and it left a big scar on his face, that's why he's not taking any visitors. I feel like shit about it, that blast was meant for me and he just jumped right in there like the fucking best friend that he is and took it right in the face." Genma took his senbon out of his mouth and twirled it in his hands, a sure sign that he wasn't feeling well. "Kami, Iruka there was so much blood I thought for sure he had died."

"Hey, who's the mess now." It was Iruka's turn to put his hand around Genma. "He'll be fine, remember the time when you were attacked in the middle of the night and he got that head wound?"

"Don't remind me of that! He was in a coma for a month of course I remember that."

"Well he woke up, and remember the first thing he said after we told him he'd been out for a month?"

"Genma you bastard I told you to wake me up for breakfast."

"He'll be fine, just give him some time, and stop blaming yourself. I thought your motto was never to regret anything."

"My nindo! Nindo man. Don't say motto, sounds like something from a girl magazine."

"Ah, I'm sorry. I guess I should stop reading those in my weekly tea party with all the other mommies in the village." Iruka changed his hold on Genma into a headlock and started pulling the paper clips out of his hair.

"Oh come on, don't be offended by that.. ow stop that, your ripping my hair out."

"I'll do more than that if Naruto ever starts following your example and starts calling me mommy."

"Maahh.. Iruka stop molesting Genma while you're on duty." Iruka startled so badly he lost his grip on Genma which resulted in Genma toppling forwards and falling face first into Iruka's lap.

"Tsk. Tsk. See that's what happens when you make Genma too excited. You really should behave you two what if Naruto walked in on that?"

"KAKASHI! _Shut the hell up_" Iruka himself thought it wouldn't be humanly possible to blush more than he was doing at the moment. Genma quickly pushed himself out of Iruka's lap and even blushed scarlet himself.

Kakashi couldn't help but laugh at the horrified looks he was seeing. Iruka and Genma were both blushing like teenagers caught in the act and were looking anywhere else but at each other.

"I just came to pick up Naruto, I promised I'd show him a few tricks... And no it's nothing dangerous _sensei_ don't get your panties all twisted.. I'm sure it would make Genma's _job_ a little more difficult.. or should I say it would make _it_ _hard_ for him?"

Kakashi quickly dodge the senbon and the kunai that came flying at him and ducked out of the office before Iruka decided to go creative on his ass. He supposed Naruto must be with the Hokage since he wasn't in the mission room.

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**I wanted to pair Iruka off with someone and I think Genma will be great for it. Also I know Iruka might seem a bit (or a lot) out of character but he is a really strong guy in this story and I also just don't really think of Iruka as the innocent, prude and often slightly bitchy character that he is usually displayed as.. even though I do write him like that as well myself.**

**Not that it matters but according to my calculations (and I'm horrible at math so this might be wrong) Itachi should actually have taken his chuunin exam around the time that Naruto was 5. I was originally looking for characters to put in the team with Naruto when I found this out but then decided to go with the Kakashi, Iruka team idea.**

**Well hope you enjoyed the chapter, I don't know when I will have time to write more since my finals will be coming up soon but you can expect more frequent updates as soon as that's finished.**

**As always thanks for reading :)**


	6. Hiding secrets and being discovered

**Hey, Sorry for a long wait. Had tons of other stuff to do and don't have internet. But here's the new chapter, hope you like it.**

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Genma carried Naruto into his apartment. His first day of looking after the kid hadn't started of well, Iruka had dropped him off with him in the mission room before heading out for his mission and not long after that Genma had lost Naruto. He'd had to leave the mission room for a few minutes at the end of his shift to hand in some documents in a nearby office but when he came back Naruto was gone and of course the ninja working the shift with him said he didn't know anything about where he went. Genma had been running around frantically looking for the boy when he'd found him sitting at the bottom of one of the stairs nursing some bruises and a badly scraped leg. Naruto had told him he'd wanted to follow him, gotten lost and then tripped in the stairs but Genma wasn't buying it. Falling down stairs didn't give you a hand shaped bruise on your arm, like someone had been gripping it tightly, and since Naruto had pretty much lived in the Hokage tower until recently the chances of him getting lost between the mission room and the office were extremely low.

Genma was cursing himself for being so careless and leaving the kid all alone in the mission office with no one there he trusted to look after him. Five minutes and someone had managed to hurt him again. He took Naruto straight to his bathroom to find his first aid bag, setting him down on the counter while he rummaged in the shelves.

When Genma finally found everything and turned to Naruto to bandage him up he noticed that the kids injuries had already started to heal. He must have spaced out a bit because he was snapped back to the present when Naruto spoke.

"Genma, is everything alright? Does it look bad, it should be alright soon. It doesn't hurt much anymore."

"Naruto.. your wounds. Do they normally heal this quickly?"

Naruto looked a bit thoughtful. "Kyuu always heals my wounds for me, he.." Naruto trailed off.

"Kyuu?"

"Uhm.. he says I shouldn't be telling people this, and I know I shouldn't but Jijii said that if I really trusted people it would be my secret to share with who I wanted. And I trust Genma and I never want to lie to my friends so it's ok if you know. Kyuubi looks after me a lot.. he's my friend you see.. so he heals me when I get hurt and we talk sometime. I know he did something really bad and that's why people don't like me but he's really not so bad." Naruto was looking at the ground like it was the most interesting thing in the world. He really wanted to tell Genma the truth because the guy had been really nice to him since they met and after Kakashi and Iruka he was the person he felt he could talk to about anything. He just wasn't sure how he would react to what he just said. The Hokage had never really reacted to it and Kakashi had looked sad but told him in a quiet, solemn voice that he was glad Naruto hadn't been alone. Iruka on the other hand had freaked out and treated Naruto like he had the plague for about a week before their relationship had gone back to the strained condition it was in at that time.

"Naruto." Naruto reluctantly looked up from the floor and into Genma's calm eyes. "do you want to hear another one of my nindos?"

The little boy nodded his head."

"Never live in the past, never try to change what you can't change and accept the fact that things don't stay the same." He ruffled the kids hair affectionately. "I don't know much about the Kyuubi attack, I wasn't fighting in it. I don't know why it happened or what happened after it but I do know you, and if you say that Kyuubi is your friend and that he's not so bad then that's how it is and who would I be to judge something I don't know anything about." Genma sat down on the bathtub opposite the counter Naruto was sitting on and started looking for a band aid in his first aid kit. "You should know this better than anyone Naruto but you should never judge someone or something without knowing all the facts."

Genma looked long and hard at the kid sitting in front of him. He didn't know much about his situation and to his credit he wasn't going to pester the boy to tell him something he had no right to be butting into but something had to be done. After observing the kid closely he had begun noticing that the kid really wasn't at all like other kids, and that had nothing to do with the fact that unlike other kids this one had a huge demon sealed in him. Naruto often behaved and spoke too maturely for his age and Genma was sure that as soon as people stopped glaring at the kid and really took the time to look at him they might notice it as well.

"Hey kid." Genma leaned closer to Naruto and looked him straight in the eyes. "I know you have secrets." Naruto's face started to look panicked. "No don't worry, let me finish. I know you have secrets and I have no intention of asking you about them and I honestly don't want you to tell me because I have a feeling it's not just your secret and therefore not yours alone to tell, but despite all that I am going to do one thing. I'm going to help you. I know you are way smarter than any regular five year old and if anyone ever did pay attention to you they would notice it too, so what we are going to do this week that I'm taking care of you is work on hiding that, that is part of your secret am I right?" Genma finally found the right size of band aid for Naruto's wound and started putting it on.

Naruto nodded his head. "Yeah... Genma?"

"Yes Naru-chan?" Genma finished his bandaging and looked at the kid again.

"Is hiding something the same as lying?"

Genma was quiet for a while, thinking for the best way to answer that question. "Well since we are talking about lies I won't lie to you and say that it's not. Intentionally not telling someone something or pretending to be someone other than you are is called deceiving and it's a form of lie. But there are two kinds of lies, one is a lie you tell to hurt others or gain something selfishly for yourself and another one is a lie you tell to protect something. It's true that it's bad to lie and you shouldn't make it a habit but the second type of lies are often not so bad and in some cases even necessary, especially if you are a ninja. With me so far?"

"Yeah"

"So even though you don't want to lie to people and you might feel like you are lying you should look at the positive side of it. By doing this you will be protecting Iruka as well as yourself, and I have a feeling you'll be protecting Kakashi as well." Genma reached over and held Naruto's shoulder. "If it was me I would do the same thing you know."

That earned him a half hearted smile from the boy. Genma really wished he would one day be able to see the child smile from the heart. If a half hearted smile could look so sweet then a pure smile from the child should really be bright enough to melt even the hearts of the council members.

"Alright, now the first thing we are going to do is get you some new clothes."

"Clothes?"

"Yep, clothes. It's all about image kid. What we have to do is make you look stupider than you actually are."

"Oh, kind of like you huh?"

Genma looked down on the kid he'd just picked up. "On second though let's just seal your voice away or something. I'm sure that if you stop making those smart ass comments people will think your stupid. Che.. anyway first clothes and then we're going to go visit a friend of mine who just got home from the hospital today. Something tells me you might actually be able to help cheer him up."

Genma might not look it but he was an incredibly good judge of character and could read people phenomenally well. His hunch that Naruto would be able to help Raidou had about a 99 percent chance of being true.

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Naruto was pulling on the jacket of his new jumpsuit nervously, he didn't want to admit it but he actually really liked it. It was bright orange and green matched with green shorts and Genma had given him a white t-shirt with red swirls on it as well for when it was too hot to wear the jacket. Naruto had been a bit reluctant to get it at first because he didn't really want to attract too much attention, which was the reason he had mostly worn black and dark colors up until now, but Genma had managed to convince him. It wasn't like the villagers didn't already notice him everywhere he went anyway so it really didn't make that much of a difference.

They had just gotten to an apartment complex where Genma said they would be visiting a friend of his. Genma had wanted Naruto to try his new goofy behavior out on the guy because he hadn't met Naruto yet and would therefore be less likely to notice if Naruto was behaving differently than usual. Genma had also asked Naruto to try to cheer the guy up since he'd been hurt recently and wasn't feeling well.

He was a bit nervous about meeting someone new but Genma trusted him so he couldn't be a bad person, and Genma was with him so it would be alright.

The first thing Naruto noticed about the guy was the huge scar running from the top of his nose, down his neck and under his shirt. It looked a bit raw, like it was still healing. He also noticed that the first thing the guy did when he let them in was to try to cover his scar with his hand. Naruto looked at Genma who was trying not to look at the scar, you definitely didn't have to be a genius child to see that Genma felt guilty, it was written all over his face. Well Naruto had just been given his very first mission. Mission cheer up Genma's friend so Naruto decided to act like any other five year old would do. That is, be so painstakingly honest that your parents or guardians wished that you had indeed been borne a mute.

"Wow you've got a HUGE scar!" Genma actually snapped around and looked at Naruto like he'd not only sprouted an extra head but was actually shouting crude things at old ladies with them. Raidou immediately tried covering it up again.

"That's so COOL, did you get it in a fight? How many bad guys were there? I bet you beat them all even though you got injured. Are you a great ninja? Ne, ne how did you get such a cool scar? Iruka-sensei has a scar on his face too but his is boooring, Kakashi has a cool one though it's right over his eye and his eye has turned all red. He said he got it while fighting the bad guys, did you get yours fighting the bad guys as well?" Naruto was jumping up and down while almost shouting his questions one after another.

Naruto really didn't know what he was doing but somehow this felt right. In his first week with Kakashi and Iruka, Kakashi had noticed that when ever he was helping him take a bath he would subconsciously scrub extra hard on his whisker marks. Naruto always did that because even though he knew that they'd never come off he still somehow hoped they would. Kakashi had made him feel better about them by telling him how cool they were and that he should be proud of his face just the way it was. So maybe if he showed an interest in the scar and convinced Genma's friend that it looked cool he would stop worrying about it.

"When I become a great ninja I'm gonna have tons of cool scars to prove it! All the best ninjas have cool scars. Ne, Genma do you have a scar?"

Genma just looked on in amazement as his friend actually stopped rubbing his scar self consciously and grinned at the small boy.

"Actually" Raidou said. "Genma only has one cool scar on his arm but he got it when he fell out of a tree on one of our missions."

"Eh, that's a lame way to get a scar! I bet you got yours in a much cooler way"

When Genma and Naruto finally headed home the special-Jounin had to carry the boy, who was half asleep the whole way mumbling something about how all this excitement was actually worse than training. Once Genma had gotten Naruto into bed and was about to go sprawl out on his couch Naruto said something very interesting.

"Genma."

"Hmm?"

"Can you sleep with me tonight? Kakashi always sleeps with me and I don't like sleeping alone." Genma looked into those sad little blue eyes and immediately melted.

"Sure kid, just move over a little bit then.. and don't drool on my shirt or anything you hear?"

Long after Naruto had fallen asleep next to him Genma was still lying there looking up at the ceiling deep in thought. '_Kakashi huh? Funny, I thought you lived with Iruka._' Genma wasn't one to pry into things that didn't concern him but he really wanted to help this kid. He also really wanted to get closer to Iruka and as it was he felt that accomplishing that would be about as likely as finding a specific grain of sand in the Suna desert. He thought he knew Iruka pretty well but recently he wasn't so sure. One of the greatest flaws with being able to read people as well as Genma was that very few details could ever escape him. He'd realized a long time ago that there was more than met the eye regarding Kakashi's and Iruka's relationship and since Naruto came into the picture inconsistencies and strange details just kept on assaulting Genma's senses. He had decided long ago that he would refrain from meddling in other peoples business as much as he could, unless it was for a mission or because it posed as a threat to the village, but this case was getting to the point where it was becoming nearly impossible to overlook. He'd really have to talk to the Hokage or Iruka himself soon.

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**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Kakashi was driving Iruka crazy and he knew it, he couldn't help it though he just could not stop worrying about Naruto. Unlike Iruka Kakashi had never really made any other friends, besides Iruka himself, since his old team had died. He knew a lot of people and was actually believed to be quite popular but up until two months ago the only friend he'd had was his partner. It had come as a bit of a shock for Iruka and had taken him some time after they started Anbu to get used to Kakashi's insistent tendency to check him over after a hard mission to see if he was ok. Sometimes, if the mission had been especially bad Kakashi would literally strip him on the spot, using his sharingan to look for injuries. Although it had annoyed him at first Iruka soon stopped complaining about it. It wasn't that Kakashi didn't believe in his abilities like he had thought at first, it was just that Kakashi had lost pretty much everyone he ever cared about and therefore made sure that his best friend was ok. He looked after his other mission partners as well even though he didn't go that far with them.

Naruto had changed Kakashi's life drastically. A whole week had gone by before he realize that he hadn't even thought about going to the memorial stone, where he had spent every single morning of his life after Obito died if he wasn't on missions and even then he thought about it. He still went there when he had free time but the visits had become fewer and the topic had changed from regretful contemplations to stories about the little boy who now occupied most of his mind and heart.

"Do you think.."

"Kakashi! For the LAST TIME! I'm sure he is perfectly safe with Genma, who I might ad is a special Jounin and a quite capable fighter. I would also like to point out that Naruto is very, very capable of taking care of himself. You even suggested we enter him into the Chuunin exams! If you don't think he'll be ok staying one week with Genma doing NOTHING how on earth are you going to cope with him taking the exams!? Honestly you're acting like a hysterical mother leaving her new born child for the first time!!

Kakashi did have the decency to look slightly guilty after Iruka's speech. Iruka was just glad that they could continue on in peace for once. At the moment he honestly didn't know why Genma thought of him as the mothering one of Naruto's new guardians. _'If he only knew'. _Iruka's mission planning was interrupted again only a few minutes later.

"But what if.."

"Ryouken! FOCUS."

Iruka hated to have to do this. Most times on their way to and from a mission they would try to stay out of the single mindedness that often came with Anbu missions. Where nothing existed besides you, the enemy and the completion of the mission. Spend too much time thinking like that and you become unable to distinguish between friend and foe. Some would even get stuck in that mindset. There was a common saying among ninjas that if you weren't good enough the fastest way out of Anbu was by death. Only Anbu members knew the truth. If you couldn't handle it the fastest way out of the division wasn't by losing your life. It was by losing your mind.

By emphasizing Kakashi's Akutenshi name Iruka was forcibly trying to push him closer to that mindset in order for him to focus on the mission at hand, even tough Iruka and Kakashi usually managed to stay out of it they weren't completely immune to it. Iruka couldn't see the look on Kakashi's face since they both had their Anbu masks on, not that you could ever really see Kakashi's face to begin with, but his posture got more serious and his steps got more determined.

Kakashi was in mission mode, all worries over Naruto would have to be pushed aside until this mission was over. He could do nothing for the new important person in his life but he could make sure that his best friend didn't die because he was being an ass on a mission. Kami knew he'd made that mistake before and he sure as hell wasn't going to let it happen again.

They were making their way towards the hidden Mist village where they would have to retrieve a very important scroll. The scroll had originally been from Konoha and had supposedly been destroyed in a fire when a section of the library burned down but rumors had started circulating that the scroll was very much intact and had been recently sold to some important people in Mist. Considering the importance of the scroll, which contained some high level jutsus among other things, it would either be heavily guarded or thoroughly locked inside somewhere.

"So, what do you think is the best way to deal with this?" Kakashi asked Iruka.

"At this point I'm not sure. My guess is it would be best to use stealth since the place where they are keeping the scroll will most likely be well guarded."

"Mmm I agree, trying to get in by disguise would be too hard. You'd either have to henge into someone who has clear access to the scroll or use a henge to get a job there, both of which take too much time and time is of the essence here. We have to get the scroll before they can decipher it."

"Exactly, I've got some good ideas about what we should do but I want you to scout the area first before we decide anything."

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

It took Kakashi and Iruka three days to reach the hidden Mist village **(1)**, their journey had been uneventful so they made good time. After entering the village they slowly made their way to a run down inn at the edge of the town. They had henged **(2)** into old men and dressed like beggars a few miles back, Iruka now had white hair and was hunched over a cane and Kakashi, who didn't really have to change the color of his hair, had lengthened it a bit, tied a dirty cloth over both his eyes and held Iruka's shoulder for guidance. Making it look like he was blind. People paid them little to no attention at all when they walked down the street, even ninjas weren't able to see through their disguise.

After renting a room they went over some ideas for their mission and got their equipment ready. When the sun finally set Kakashi went out to scout the area where the scroll was kept while Iruka hung out at the inn's tavern fishing for gossip and information, they had often gotten valuable information before by just sitting in foreign bars or other shady places.

Nothing interesting seemed to be going on that night though and when Kakashi came back around 3 am he found Iruka slumped down on a table thoroughly bored and a bit tipsy after all the alcohol he'd had to drink to gather the rumors. Kakashi slowly made his way to his partner, he was using one of his nin dogs as a seeing eye dog so his cover wouldn't be blown, and hoisted him out of the chair.

"Well old pal, I think it's best we retire for the night."

"Ah. How was your night walk" Iruka asked more for appearances than anything else, he certainly didn't expect Kakashi to spill out the results of his spying to a room full of shady people.

"Very refreshing, you should come with me more often."

"Yeah right, I'd only slow you down with my impairment."

Kakashi didn't quite know if Iruka was referring to the cane he now traveled with or his stealth abilities.

Once they got to their room Kakashi and Iruka discussed what he had found out in greater detail. They were sitting opposite each other on the cots in their small room using sign language to communicate. They could never be too careful on missions, especially ones were they had to stay inside towns, and would therefore discuss important mission details in a special sigh language they had made up exclusively for Akutenshi.

"_So what did you find out?" _Iruka asked eager to begin.

"_Although there are fewer guards than we thought there would be the compound is hard to get into and is guarded rather well. The room with the scroll is guarded mainly from the outside but the guards patrol it every hour on the hour so if I get in there and steal the scroll right after that we have an hour before they should notice it's gone_." Kakashi signed back.

"_Alright, how do you want to do this_?"

"_Stealth is the only option in this case, the guards who go into the room are checked before and after they come out so even if you would be able to get in with a disguise they'd get you on the way out. I suggest we do it the old fashioned way. I got the place pretty well mapped out and while I'm inside you'll back me up on the radio, let me know the position of guards and the usual, their not ninjas so I won't be able to sense them well enough._" Iruka always found it funny how you could almost hear the lazy tone in Kakashi's signing.

"_Ok, sounds good. We'll get some rest now, head out at 6 am, get the scroll and go home_."

Unlike what most ninjas believed the best time to break in was in fact not in the cover of darkness in the middle of the night. Everyone knew that if there would be a break in it would be in the middle of the night, therefore guards would always be most alert at that time. Kakashi and Iruka had found out that the best time to break in was in fact early in the morning before the shift change. At that time the night guards, thinking no one would be breaking in, let their guard down and became tired after staying alert for the whole night.

"_Great, I can't wait to hear what Naruto's been up to_."

"_Yeah. I do miss the annoying little bugger, although I'm more anxious to know what my class has been up to, Mizuki doesn't handle them well on his own. He's still just a substitute tea_cher."

"_Mahh I'm sure they'll be fine... well I'm at least sure they'll be glad to get you back_."

"_Yeah, they always are_." Iruka smiled.

Kakashi smiled as well. Becoming a teacher was one of the best things that had happened to Iruka in Kakashi's opinion. He was great with children and they brought him an endless amount of happiness, which was especially good after they'd had a bad mission. Iruka's uneasiness and post mission traumas had all but disappeared after he started teaching. Kakashi was beginning to understand the healing power of children himself. When he woke up in the middle of the night from his old nightmares, something that was happening less and less these days, he'd only have to look at the little bundle in his arms to be reminded that maybe life wouldn't be so bad after all. There was hope in the future.

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

Kakashi was making his way down another long hallway. These hallways were the worst thing for stealth missions. It was long, narrow and had very few places to hide if anyone were to walk down them. On one side there were a few doors that led to who knew where and on the other side were big windows that let the moonlight in. The only good thing about it was that the ceiling was rather high so Kakashi was using chakra focused in his feet and hands to crawl along the shadows on it, but even then he had a high risk of being caught if he wasn't careful.

"Alright" Iruka's voice came through the radio. "The next hallway is clear as well but I can't see farther than that so your on your own from then on."

"Ok. Just keep me updated on anyone who comes or goes inside once I get further in"

"Will do." Iruka's voice replied a bit too cheerily.

Kakashi smiled to himself. He knew that while he was in here having "fun" Iruka was sitting outside somewhere most likely bored to tears. It was a thing they had in common because even though their missions were often hard both physically and mentally the adrenalin kick they got out of it was often thrilling and exciting.

Kakashi made it up to the room without trouble. The time was 7:34 when he got there, not what he had been hoping for but he'd have to make do. Waiting for half an hour would severely increase the chances of being caught. It didn't matter so much anyway, the most important thing was to get in and get the scroll without being discovered, that way he would already have the scroll and could fight his way outside with it if he had to.

He slowly made his way nearer to the two guards who were guarding the door and, once he got close enough, let himself drop down behind one of them. He quickly took the guy out by snapping his neck, the other one had just enough time to turn around to see what was going on before he fell down dead with a kunai through the eye. Kakashi waisted no time and burst into the room, grabbed the scroll and was out again and back to the ceiling, except this time he was running crouched down instead of crawling.

Kakashi froze 3 hallways down when a door near him opened, he crouched lower on the ceiling and scooted deeper into the shadows. A guard had just come out of one of the rooms and was thankfully making his way away from the room where the scroll was kept and were the two dead guards were now lying.

"Fucking hell!"

Kakashi was making sure that the pocket with the scroll was securely fastened when Iruka's voice came booming over the radio, making him jump so badly that he accidentally snapped the clip on his pocket open and the scroll fell out just as the guard was passing by below. Kakashi barely managed to catch it before it fell on his head but that left him standing straight down from the ceiling, arm outstretched for the scroll, which was hanging mere centimeters above the guards head. For a few agonizing seconds, that felt like decades to Kakashi, the guard stopped and looked behind him. Seeing nothing there he shrugged it off and continued on his way. Kakashi slowly crouched down again, secured the scroll and, having made sure the guard was out of hearing range, answered his partner frantically.

"What? What's going on?"

"I just realized we don't have a Sensei for the exams" Iruka's voice sounded annoyed.

"We... What?"

"For the Chuunin exams, if you and me go as Naruto's team we don't have anyone to be Sensei for us."

Kakashi could have laughed.. or cried.. He really did feel like doing both but now was not the time or the place to lose his composure.

"Let me get this straight. I'm in here, risking my life. Trying not to be caught. Trying to concentrate completely on the mission. And you nearly give me a heart attack, not to mention almost getting me caught, because you figured that out!"

"Relax the guards are all heading outside now, I guess the shift change is taking place or something. Just get out of there as soon as you can and we can head back."

"What! Their going outside? Iruka the shift change isn't until after an hour."

"I wonder what they're... Oh I see." Iruka's thoughts were interrupted by a spear poking his back.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**.x. 3 days later .x.**

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Genma was walking home with Naruto, he'd had to go see the Hokage about an assignment and since he didn't have anyone to look after the kid he decided to take him with him even though it was rather late in the evening. Naruto always liked visiting his grandfather figure anyway. Genma was slowly making his way down a side street, enjoying the cool night breeze and the sight of Naruto running a few steps ahead, when it happened. Naruto suddenly stopped and turned to Genma with an anxious look on his face, it was then that Genma realized what the prickling feeling in the back of his head had been. Some people had been following them for quite some time now and they were quickly coming closer, and by the look of it Naruto had realized it as well.

Genma had just reached Naruto's side when they showed up. It was the same burly ninja that had assaulted Iruka in the mission office along with two other ninjas, most likely his teammates. The stupid oaf, as Genma liked to call him, was blocking their way out of the street and his teammates were standing behind Genma and Naruto, blocking off that way as well.

"Oho, would you look at that." The guy sneered. "Not only do we get the guy who attacked me but we get the little demon as a bonus"

'Shit.' Genma thought. 'They were after me and now I've dragged Naruto into this.'

Genma had to think fast. He knew he couldn't take them on all at once, especially since he was still getting over a back and leg injury he'd gotten on his last mission, and if he didn't keep them all occupied one or two of them could get to Naruto while he was fighting. Genma did the only thing that came to mind and picked Naruto up, he wouldn't have enough time now to teleport out of there but maybe if he could create an opening he could get them, or at least Naruto, out of there.

"Alright Naruto." Genma whispered to the kid. "Do as I say exactly how I tell you and when I tell you to do it, think of this as a mission game ok? Now I want you to wrap your arms and legs around me as tight as you can." Genma waited for the boy to comply, he could feel him shaking a little with fear. "That's good, now no matter what happens I want you to hold on tight and don't let go, ok? No matter what happens... I'll make sure they won't hurt you."

"Aaaww how sweet, another demon lover thinking he can protect the little monster. I must admit I was just following you because I wanted to pay you back for the other day but I've got a score to settle with the kid as well, you see I was really close to cutting the monsters head of a few months ago but that stupid ghost bloke had to stop me, and since it doesn't seem like you'll hand the bastard over willingly I guess we'll have to use a bit more force on you than I had intended."

Genma glared daggers at the guy. He knew Naruto wasn't well liked but this was the first time he was really seeing how much hatred the kid had had to live with in his life. He didn't have a long time for regrets though because the stupid oaf's cronies came at him, probably aiming to capture him and hold him while their leader either beat him up or got to Naruto. Genma let go of his hold on Naruto, got himself a kunai in each hand and readied himself for the attacks.

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

Naruto was scared, not only for himself but for Genma as well. He was also angry and upset. Angry because these guys were planning to hurt his friend and upset because, since he had been with him, the guys were going to hurt him even more. Naruto wanted to tell Genma to let him go and just let them have him. He didn't want his friend to be hurt because of him, but he knew that Genma would never do that and arguing with him about it at this point would only make the situation harder for them. So he did just as Genma had told him to and clung to him with all his strength. The guys behind them made the first move, as they came diving towards them Genma sprung into action. He dodged the first one and managed to trip the second one with a low round kick in one movement. Naruto dug his little fingers deeper into Genma's vest and willed himself to hold on. It was hard to keep the grip with his legs when Genma moved and he could feel in his movements thatt he was hindering him in the fight.

Genma wasn't as lucky in the next attack, he managed to dodge and kick the first guy in the back but took a high kick to the shoulder from the second one. The kick had been aimed at Naruto but Genma managed to turn enough for it to miss it's original target.

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

His shoulder was burning and he could feel the stiffness in his back and leg getting worse with each move but Genma ignored the pain. The guys obviously didn't care who they would hit and were aiming both at him and Naruto. He knew he wouldn't be able to dodge all their attacks but the least he could do was make sure that none of the hits meant for Naruto would succeed. The stupid oaf had thankfully decided to stay out of the fight for what ever stupid reasons he could have, Genma personally thought he was waiting for the other guys to beat him up enough for him to not be able to fight back. It would be just the sort of thing a coward like that guy would do. Talking and acting all tough and then having other people do most of the work.

The second guy came at him again with more force, Genma blocked the first punch and countered the kick but took the second punch to the head almost at the same time as the first guy kicked him in his bad leg making him keel over. He got up quickly but couldn't put much weight o the leg. 'Shit, shit, shit.' Genma looked around for a way out again but saw none. He tried to form seals for the teleport jutsu but was interrupted by the two idiots each time. Their options were few and were running out fast.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Kakashi leaned a bit more on Iruka, just enough to be severely annoying but not enough to hinder or strain the other person to much.

"Kakashi I thought you said you were alright, are you feeling worse?"

"Nope." Kakashi replied matter of factly.

"Then why are you leaning more heavily on me all of a sudden?"

"Because I'm tired... and I felt like it."

"You felt like... You stupid ass! If you didn't have that big gash in your side I'd leave you here you do know that right? I think I'll carry you home, get you patched up and then kick your ass again you annoying fuck!"

"Jeez do you use that language at school sensei? And for your information I wouldn't have this big gash in my side if it wasn't for you. Now what was it that you were telling me on our way to the mission, I can't quite remember but I think it was something about focus... focus on the mission or something like that? Ring any bells?"

"Alright I guess I deserve that but could you just please not make a big deal out of it ok? I made a mistake but I was taking pretty good care of it before you came along."

"You know as smart as you are you sure are stupid sometimes."

Kakashi was still getting over the shock of what had happened. Iruka's radio had suddenly gone dead and knowing that they were already discovered and that most of the guards were already outside Kakashi decided to throw caution to the wind and jumped through one of the big windows, which explained why he was covered in scratches and his clothes were ripped. He arrived by Iruka's side just in time. Iruka had been holding up pretty well against the guards but they were closing in on him and it was clear to Kakashi that he wouldn't be able to hold them off much longer. He rushed in there to help his friend and Iruka used the opportunity while Kakashi was beating the guys up close to fall back and launch a series of long range attacks.

"I mean seriously, the guy's weren't ninjas so they couldn't have found you by your chakra so what on earth were you doing? Waving a sign over your head saying Here I am."

"No! For your information I was trying to make sure the guards wouldn't find you. But to be honest with you I have no idea how on earth they found me. I was a bit distracted yeah but I was very well hidden and masking my presence the best I could. Ninjas should have a really hard time finding us but these guys didn't just find me they even managed to sneak up on me without me noticing it."

"Yeah, that is a mystery." Kakashi didn't like it. There was just no explanation for why the guards had been able to find Iruka, let alone get up to him without him noticing. Ninjas who'd reached Anbu could sense danger so well that they were sometimes thought to be extremely paranoid because they were pausing or looking into every little thing.

"Well no use trying to find out now. Anyway we're home, let's get the scroll to the Hokage and make the report. We'll have him call the medic nin in while we're at it. It's pretty late but I'm sure I could go and get Naruto afterwards."

Kakashi and Iruka made their way through an underground tunnel that would get them inside the village. Supposedly the tunnels ran under the whole town, built by the first Hokage as a final escape route if the village was under attack, but most of them had crumbled from disuse a long time ago. The tunnel they were going through would only take them under the village wall, which was very convenient for them, it allowed them to get in and out of Konoha unnoticed by the guards.

Once inside Iruka was tempted to walk the streets to the Hokage tower since Kakashi was leaning so heavily on him but then decided against it, going over the rooftops would be much quicker and safer.

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

Genma knew he was failing. He could barely stand and had only managed to beat one of the guys by paralyzing him with a senbon. He staggered up against the wall and used the last of his kunais and shurikens to buy himself a little time. To hopefully buy Naruto enough time to escape.

"Naruto. Listen to me, I'm going to distract them and while I do I want you to run back to the Hokage as fast as you can."

"No." Naruto protested. "I'm not leaving you here. I can fight too, I've been training"

"Naruto! I need you to do this for me. No arguments, no objections. I want you to run when I say so. _Please_, do this for me. Go get help." Genma knew Naruto would never be able to get help fast enough for him but hopefully the kid could get himself to safety, it was all he cared about at the moment.

Genma put Naruto down next to him. The leader was still standing at one end of the street and the other one on the opposite end. Before either of them could make a move Genma pushed himself away from the wall and nudge Naruto towards the second ninja.

"Naruto, RUN!"

As soon as Naruto was moving Genma sent the last of his senbons flying and, having caught the ninja by surprise, managed to hit some good points. They wouldn't immobilize him but they would slow him down.

Genma was getting ready to take on the big ninja, who was running towards him, when he saw to his horror that Naruto had stopped running.

The last thing he saw before blacking out for a few minutes was Naruto reaching his hands up and screaming "_Doggie!_"

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**(1)** I have no idea how long it takes so I just used the same time as it takes to go to Suna.

**(2)** No clue how to use this word in the past tense.. they didn't exactly teach that in English class at school.


	7. Coming together

**Hey hey. This chapter is a bit on the short side, this is only half of the originally planed chapter but since I'll be really busy for a while (and have been busy for quite some time now too) the rest of the chapter won't be finished for who knows how long... hopefully soon though :P I've already started writing it but it's going slowly.**

**This chapter here is not unfinished though!**** It is a whole chapter, just missing what I had planned to put at the end of it and therefore shorter.**

* * *

.x.x.x.

_Genma was getting ready to take on the big ninja, who was running towards him, when he saw to his horror that Naruto had stopped running. _

_The last thing he saw before blacking out for a few minutes was Naruto reaching his hands up and screaming "Doggie!"_

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Naruto ran as fast as he could. He really wanted to stay behind and help Genma but he was also scared. The only thing he could do now was do what Genma had begged him to do and go and get help. Naruto was running past the Ninja who was blocking his way just as he was hit by the senbons and fell towards him. Naruto dodged and was about to keep running when he felt a huge chakra presence getting closer. No, not just one but two big once. He'd recognize those signatures anywhere. He was there just when he needed him, just like he'd promised. When the signature was close enough Naruto reached his hands up and called for the person he knew would make it all right.

"Doggie!"

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

"Kami, could you be any heavier? I'm sure I have a vertebrae somewhere that isn't being crushed."

"I think the only thing crushed about you is your manhood if you can't even support me properly."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean."

Kakashi and Iruka were slowly making their way over the rooftops towards the tower. Slowly because, unlike what he had told his partner, Kakashi was in fact feeling worse, but of course having worked together as long as they had Iruka was well aware of this as well and had therefore slowed down.

"It means your a complete girl if you can't hold me up without bitching about it."

"Well excuse me mister day-care but I'm sure you've put on a _few_ extra pounds since you started mommy-ing Naruto."

They weren't really quarreling, they weren't even annoyed with each other. But like many good friends Kakashi and Iruka often made time pass with friendly banter. And like with many good friends their banter could, to other people, sometimes seem quite offensive. Kakashi had started it this time to distract himself away from the pain in his side.

"Jeez is that the best insult you could get, calling me fat? That's so girlie, and I'm not the one who's the mommy in this messed up family we have here. You're doing that job pretty well with your over protectiveness. You're pretty much coddling the kid."

"Yeah well at least I'm not sleeping with him!" Iruka shot back.

Kakashi and Iruka both paused awkwardly.

"I didn't mean of course.." Iruka began.

"It's not like it's..." Kakashi began.

There was another awkward pause but it was soon broken by the sound of commotion ahead.

"Maybe we should go around it." Iruka suggested.

"No wait! Isn't that..."

"_Doggie!"_

"..Naruto!"

Kakashi's lungs felt like they were collapsing. Something was happening to Naruto. He completely forgot all about his injury, let go off Iruka's shoulder and started running towards the alley.

"Kakashi, wait your wound! Let me take care of it, you have to be careful."

They both reached the top of the alley just in time to see Genma knocked out by the leader. The second ninja had managed to get to his feet again and was getting ready to strike Naruto. Without thinking Kakashi jumped down, landing on the guy just before he could finish the blow. The guy fell to the ground and when Kakashi got off of him he remained motionless. He didn't know if the guy was unconscious or dead and he didn't really care at the moment. All he cared about was the little kid standing in front of him scared and crying. Kakashi bent down on one knee and hugged Naruto tightly before pulling away a bit to check and see if he was alright.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Kakashi wiped away his tears. "Did they hurt you?"

Naruto shook his head "Th-they didn't hurt me. Th-they hurt Genma." Naruto started crying even harder. "Th-they hurt Genma because of me!" A small hand grabbed the front of Kakashi's Anbu armor. "G-Genma pr-protected me, so they hu-hurt him even more." Kakashi picked Naruto up and held him closer.

"Shhh, it's ok." He looked over to where he had seen Genma and saw that Iruka had taken care of the other guy. "It's ok, Iruka's taking care of Genma. He'll be ok." Kakashi started walking towards his partner. "He'll be ok." _'Please let him be ok.'_

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

Genma was drifting in and out of consciousness. His body felt heavy and his thoughts were clouded but he still managed to make out a presence hovering over him. _'Am I dreaming?' _ It was oddly familiar yet completely unknown. _'Am I dead?'_ In one of his more wakeful moments he managed to open his eyes and see a shape holding him, checking him over for injuries. _'Who?'_ Somehow he felt like he knew the person. He felt safe, like everything would be alright. _'Whait..'_ Before Genma slipped into the darkness again he reached out his hand and grabbed the persons shoulder.

"Iru..kah.."

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

Iruka froze. There was no way in hell anyone would ever recognize him in this uniform. No way in hell anyone _should_ ever recognize him. People thought of him as the innocent little chuunin school teacher, they even laughed and patted him on the back when he joked that he should be given jounin status for handling the difficult kids at school. No one should be good enough to see past all the precautions they took to conceal themselves and with Iruka's reputation no one in their right mind would think Iruka would ever reach Jounin status let alone higher than that.

Was Genma just being delusional due to the blow to the head or had he really known it was him?

Iruka looked up when Kakashi walked up to him with Naruto.

"How is he?" Kakashi asked.

"Knocked out at the moment although he seems to be drifting in and out. He's pretty beaten up but he should make it" Iruka's tone was uncertain.

Naruto peeked out from under Kakashi's chin. "I-is Genma really going to be ok?"

Iruka gently put Genma down on the ground and got up. He walked up to Kakashi and ruffled Naruto's head. "Yeah Genma-San is going to be just fine. Don't worry about him, he's a tough guy just like you. Are you hurt anywhere?"

Naruto shook his head and nuzzled Kakashi's neck again, still sobbing a little.

Kakashi rubbed his back soothingly. "He's just pretty shaken up."

Iruka crouched down next to Genma again and started making him more comfortable. "We should call a medic nin and some Anbu to take care of this.."

"No." Kakashi interrupted.

"Huh?"

"Take him with us." Kakashi indicated Genma.

"Take him..? Are you mad! We can't..."

"We can and we will. We'll take him to Base and call our medic nin and the Hokage there."

"You can't be serious? Must I remind you _Ryouken_ that he's an outsider. This could be a threat to our work. He said my name before he passed out for Kami's sake! The situation is bad enough as it is!"

"You don't have to remind me of anything. I think I should be the one to remind you, _Kuroneko_, of what the first thing you taught me about was. What you are teaching to your students now. Ninja's are and never should be emotionless tools. One of your best friends is seriously hurt. Stop panicking about the job and take care of him. I know you'll feel a lot worse about yourself if you leave him behind than if he finds out about us. You never were the kind of guy who'd leave his comrades behind."

"You.. You're right." Iruka looked down at Genma. He had been worrying so much about being recognized so shortly after being discovered on his mission that he wasn't even thinking about his friends well being. He bent down and picked Genma up as gently as he could. "Will you be alright on the way? How's your injury?"

Kakashi could feel his wound bleeding again and was feeling a bit weak. "I'll make it, we've made it through a lot worse before haven't we?"

"That's true. Never hurts to make sure though does it."

Kakashi looked at his friend. Even with the masks they knew what the other one was feeling. "No, it doesn't hurt." Kakashi sighed.

They made their way up to the rooftops again and changed the course to their base house. "It doesn't hurt but it's annoying as hell." Kakashi remarked.

"Oh really look who's talking. I'm not the one who stripped my partner completely naked because I wanted to _make sure he wasn't hurt_."

"I was making sure you weren't hurt!"

"Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that you perv, I know you just wanted to see me.." Iruka looked at the little kid in Kakashi's arms. Maybe he should save the pervert jokes to a time when little ears weren't around.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

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******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Kakashi was sitting on a sofa in the library. One arm holding Naruto, who was clinging to his right side, the other arm draped over the back of the sofa, giving the medic nin easier access to his wound. He'd told him to take a look at Genma first but the medic nin wouldn't hear of it. Said his injury was much worse than Genma's. Kakashi supposed he should believe him, the guy was a Hyuga after all, and his wound had started bleeding again. Kakashi inhaled sharply in pain and squirmed a little when the medic started cleaning his wound. This caused Naruto to tighten his hold on him, Kakashi pulled him closer and focused on the child while the medic nin finished healing the wound. He noticed the Hyuga eyeing the kid with mild curiosity but nothing else. '_Typical Hyuga_' He thought. '_If it doesn't concern the clan directly they just don't care._'

The medic nin finished bandaging him up, a difficult feat considering Naruto was clinging to his side with all his might. Just before leaving the room he turned around and focused his Byakugan on Naruto one more time. "His chakra's not stable."

Kakashi looked up from the kid. "Hmm? Well it's understandable he's pretty upset." he remarked defensively.

"Maybe that's exactly why I'm seeing it. Normally you might not notice it, not with your Sharingan and probably not even with the Byakugan, but since he's upset and not consciously focusing his chakra it's more obvious. His chakra usage isn't normal, it's coming from two sources. I think you know what that means"

Kakashi lifted his headband and studied Naruto with his Sharingan. At first he saw nothing out of the ordinary, Naruto's chakra was spiking and a little out of control like it often did when ninjas were stressed. But then he saw it. Another chakra entirely mixing in with Naruto's own. The chakra was red and, although there wasn't much of it, it was giving the kids chakra a purple color.

"It's not damaging him in any way." The medic nin stated. "But if this is happening all the time it might affect his jutsu performance. I advice you to keep an eye on it, Kami only knows what will happen if he loses control of _that_. And while we are on the subject of losing control. That wound you got was pretty deep and you weren't helping it at all by fighting. You'll have to make sure you don't put any strain on it for at least a week but knowing you I really beg you to at least make it through four days. It's just about as fun for me to come back here and patch you up as it is for you, so do us both a favor and listen to my advice at least once."

When the medic nin was gone Kakashi sat there a little bit longer studying Naruto and his swirling purple chakra. After doing so for a few minutes he had to admit that the Hyuga was right about one thing. If this was happening continuously it might affect Naruto's jutsu performance, but as Kakashi watched on in fascination he saw something the medic nin hadn't. Every blue spike of chakra was quickly surrounded with the red one. If it flowed in the wrong direction the red one would move it to the right one. Like a parent calming down a child throwing a tantrum the chakra was soothingly easing away the hurt and anger. Kyuubi's way of taking care of Naruto he supposed.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

When Kakashi walked into Iruka's room, carrying an almost sleeping Naruto, the Hokage had arrived. Iruka was hunched over in a chair holding his head in his hands. His hair was down, covering his face, but by the shaking of his shoulders Kakashi could see he was crying. Sarutobi was sitting in a chair next to him, patting his shoulder and smoking his pipe, eyes focused intently on the unmoving form of one of his ninjas. The air in the room was heavy and silent. Kakashi didn't even have to look at the medic nin, now working on saving Genma's life, to realize he'd lied. It wasn't that his injuries had been worse than Genma's. His life had just been considered more important and therefore he'd been worked on first.

Kakashi clenched his teeth and took a deep breath to try to calm himself down. This was what he hated the most about being considered one of the best. It was the sad truth in the ninja world, a Jounin's life had more value than a Chuunin's and an Anbu's life had more value than a Jounin's. Kakashi and Iruka were right behind the Hokage and the Sannins on the social ladder.

He felt like breaking something. He felt like grabbing the medic nin and screaming his head off. But he knew he couldn't do that. Kakashi was the responsible one. The one who held it all together. The one who they always relied on if something went wrong. Right now he had more important things to do, a more important person to focus on than himself. He walked over to his partner and his old sensei, catching the Thirds eye for the first time. When he tried to hand Naruto over to Sarutobi the boy stirred and tried to hold on to him once more. Kakashi broke Naruto's grip on him, took his head in his hands and kissed him on the forehead.

"Shh, it's ok. I'm not going far. I'll be right over here with Iruka. See? Iruka isn't feeling well either so he needs me to comfort him ok? Can you stay with Jijii now?"

Naruto nodded his head and buried his head in the Hokage's robes.

Kakashi turned over to his best friend. He crouched down in front of him and took both of his hands in his. Iruka looked at him with tear stained eyes.

"How bad is it?"

Iruka's eyes shot over to Genma before they focused on Kakashi again.

"He's got 3 broken ribs, one of them pierced his right lung. Some internal bleeding, a ripped muscle in his shoulder, 2 broken fingers, a fractured vertebrae along with a lot of bruises. The blow he took to the head is the worst though, along with the fractured vertebrae, we don't know how much damage it has done and we won't find out until he wakes up." Iruka didn't need to say it, the words _if he wakes up_ were written all over his face. "He stopped breathing earlier but the medic nin got it started quickly again so it shouldn't have done any damage."

"Well that's good at least right? That means his lung is better now."

"Oh yeah, that's just great! At least now he's going to be a breathing vegetable."

Kakashi tightened his hold on Iruka to prevent him from pulling away.

"Hey don't.."

"I was going to leave him! He would have died out there waiting for a medic nin." Iruka stopped trying to pull away and put his head on Kakashi's shoulder. "I was.. I was going to just leave him there."

**_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._**

Sarutobi settled Naruto down on his lap, taking the front of his long coat and wrapping him up in it.

"Jijii?"

The Hokage looked down into the little face peeking up at him with sleep filled eyes.

"Hmm?"

"Genma's really hurt isn't he?"

Sarutobi looked over to the medic nin who was working as quickly as he could to heal Genma's more severe wounds. Genma didn't look good at all, his face was pale, his body looked broken and bruised and the life and power he radiated had _disappeared_. He looked lifeless.

"Yes he is." The Hokage had learned long ago that lying to Naruto was pretty much useless. He was really good at seeing through them.

"He's going to be alright."

Sarutobi looked at the little boy again.

"You think so."

"Yep, he's going to be fine. Believe it! If you believe it and believe in him he'll make it."

The third hokage of the leaf laughed. The words sounded so innocent and childlike but coming from this kid he knew they were serious as well.

The Hokage looked over to Iruka again. Despite the situation he couldn't help but feel a bit happy. All of the lonely boy's he'd taken in were coming together and forming a strong whole. Kakashi, Iruka, Genma and Naruto. Kakashi and Iruka were a given, they'd been there for each other for almost as long as they'd needed anyone else. They'd had someone to support them, to fight for and to cry for when things went bad. Now Genma and Naruto had those too. Not because of duty but because of bonds.

Sarutobi was about to reach out a hand to put on Iruka's shoulder but a much smaller one beat him to it.

"You have to believe it too. He's counting on you to help him through now."

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******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Kakashi sat on the rooftop of the base house, one eye staring at the stars without really seeing them. His hands were shaking.

The Hokage had gone home shortly after the medic nin had finished treating Genma. It was all just a waiting game now. Would he wake up. Would he be paralyzed. Brain damaged. Would he not wake up at all. He'd finally managed to get Iruka to sleep after giving him some calming herbs. The guy had a tendency to blame himself for trivial stuff and to bottle things up inside. Kakashi knew he'd have to look out for that and deal with it in the next few days.

Naruto had fallen asleep at some point and Kakashi had left him in their room. He'd looked fine so he wasn't really worried about the fight leaving any lasting scars on the kid but he'd still have to keep an eye on him. They were pretty close but Kakashi still had a hard time reading him sometimes. The kid really could keep things from you if he wanted to. Kakashi just hoped that Naruto would someday trust him well enough to confide in him completely.

Kakashi slowly came out of his thoughts some time later. He kept telling himself that things would work out well. He'd fix everything. Make it all better like he was supposed to. He was the rock. He had to be strong for everyone.

His hands wouldn't stop shaking.

Unlike usual the stars held no comfort for him now, there was no one there to help him stand strong for his friends. Not anymore. He was slowly realizing that they hadn't been there for a long time now. So he went back to his room and looked at the only thing that seemed to give him any hope these days.

He didn't touch him the whole night though. His hands were still shaking.

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**Well hope you liked it and sorry for the long wait. -**_Bows down_**-  
**


	8. and falling apart

**Alright here's the rest of the chapter from last time. Thank you for reading and reviewing :D**

**Ok just to clear things up**

_'This is thinking, note the commas'_

_This is not thinking but just another point of view.. note the absence of commas_

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******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

"Why did you choose someone like that to be your cover, I mean I can understand the loudmouth, stupidness and the fact that you are annoying as hell, that last one's not much of a difference from your usual self, but _orange_. Why on earth orange?" Iruka asked absent mindedly while he waited for the coffee machine.

The trio was in the kitchen eating breakfast. It had been a long night for all of them and even though they tried to make the most of it the atmosphere was still a bit gloomy and tense.

"Well I was going to go for the lazy, pervert but the spot was already taken." Naruto yawned and glanced over at Kakashi.

"Of course, I'm way better at it than you would ever be too." Kakashi beamed with pride.

"Well yeah I hardly think people would react well to a 5 year old with the books you read. They're all banned for people under 18." Naruto slurped down his ramen slowly.

"I'm a bit afraid to ask" Iruka did indeed look a bit uneasy. "But do you actually know what a pervert is and what Kakashi's books are about?"

Naruto looked confused. "No, I hear people call Kakashi that all the time because he reads those books but no one will ever explain what it means, Jijii always just coughs and changes the subject... and I can't see whats so special about those books that you can't read them until your 18, although I can't really understand why anyone would ever want to read them anyway, unless your a girl.. the book seemed to talk an awful lot about girls and how they look."

Although Kakashi and Iruka were both blushing at that point they were nevertheless very relieved that they could postpone the "kunais and the shuriken" talk for a few years. Kakashi was the first one to break the awkward silence.

"But anyway, Iruka's right why orange? I thought you hated that color, at least that's what you said when Gai offered to give you those leg warmers."

"I don't hate the color, it's Kyuu's color after all. It's just not a practical color for a ninja, which is why Genma picked it because it goes well with the whole 'look at me I'm an idiot' thing we were aiming for, but there really is a limit to how idiotic you can get and those leg warmers are wayyyyy over that line."

"I thought the whole point was for people not to notice you" It was Kakashi's turn to yawn.

"Ah but you see mister Copy-Nin, Knows a 1000 jutsus and can sharingan your ass, sometimes the best way to hide something is putting it in plain sight for everyone to see. Who in their right mind would look at a little orange goof-ball and think 'You know, that one there is definitely training to be an Anbu'."

Kakashi opened his mouth to retort but nothing came to mind so he reluctantly closed it again. He was beginning to realize why such few people liked him when he was a kid. Being outwitted by a 5 year old wasn't just a punch to ones ego, it was a huge chakra induced kick in the ego's groin.

Thankfully Iruka took pity on him and came to his rescue. Or maybe he was only thinking about the kid and didn't care about his friends dignity at all.

"Well that's enough about that. I'm glad Genma-San helped you finding a cover, me and Kakashi really should have done so a lot sooner. I guess since your so young we just never really thought about it and things have been pretty busy here lately with your training and all. Speaking of which I think you've had a bit to much of excitement... _or trauma_" Iruka mumbled under his breath. "for the time being so I think we should skip training today. You and Kakashi can go do something fun together, I should stay here and look after Genma."

Kakashi looked between his partner and the kid. He really didn't like the idea of leaving Iruka all alone after last night. Especially if he was going to be taking care of Genma. He'd probably spend the entire day blaming himself for something he'd had nothing to do with. If it was anyone else's fault, other than the ninja's who did this to him, then it was Kakashi's since the medic nin had treated him first. Still Kakashi knew that he could do little for Iruka in this case, as much as he wanted to stay at home and look after Iruka he knew that his partner wouldn't appreciate it no matter how much he needed it. So to avoid upsetting his partner any more than he already was Kakashi decided to go along with Iruka's plan for now. Not because he didn't want to deal with Iruka, he'd have plenty of time to force him to accept help later today if he had to, but because he had another person he had to look after today as well. One that could use some fresh air and time away from the gloomy atmosphere at the house. Naruto's sleep had been restless for most part of the night and he'd been eerily quiet and a bit distracted all morning. The clearest sign of something being wrong was the fact that the kid was now poking at his half eaten ramen bowl, which he'd eaten slowly instead of practically inhaling it like he normally did.

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******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Kakashi didn't know what had driven him to come here. He'd planned on taking Naruto outside to cheer him up but staying inside the town hadn't been helping much since everywhere they went people would glare or avoid them. So he'd decided to take Naruto somewhere more secluded to eat lunch and somehow they'd ended up at the memorial stone. The place hadn't given him much comfort lately but somehow coming here with the kid felt right. Like some unseen force had guided them there together. For the first time in a while Kakashi felt at peace here.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when the little hand in his tugged ever so lightly on his own. He looked down on the child next to him.

"Ne, Kakashi. What is this place?"

Kakashi bent down next to the kid. "This here is a very special place. Every time a ninja dies for this village their name will be inscribed on this stone. Those people are all heroes who helped the village live on. And so to honor them and so their names will never be forgotten even after they are gone their names are kept here to help us remember."

Kakashi put their food down on the stone base of the memorial and sat down next to it, motioning Naruto to do the same. After they'd sat there eating for a while Naruto looked up.

"Do you know anyone who's on here?"

"Yeah. More than I care to remember." Kakashi looked a bit lost in thought for a while. "These two." Kakashi pointed at two names. "These were my old team mates. Obito, Rin. This is the kid I've been telling you about." Kakashi put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "He's the reason I haven't been coming around so much lately."

Kakashi pointed to another name. This one was marked specially and written a bit bigger than the rest. "This one here is a true hero and a very special person. My old sensei." Kakashi looked at Naruto. "Your father. Minato sensei, this is your son Naruto. I'm sorry to say that your hopes didn't come true but I'll do my best to make him as happy as he's making me."

Naruto reached out his hand and touched the name. Kakashi couldn't read much out of his expression but he thought he could see pride with a hint of sadness in those blue eyes.

Everything was quiet for a while and then Kakashi pointed to two more names. "These are Iruka's parents." Kakashi looked at Naruto again.

"They died when Kyuubi came here." Naruto met Kakashi's eye. Again Kakashi couldn't read much out of the boys face.

"Yes they did."

"Along with many others on this stone." It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

Naruto was quiet for some time looking at the memorial. Finally he looked up with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"Kakashi?"

"Hmm?"

"Am I a monster?"

"NO, of course not. The Kyuubi attack had nothing to do with you."

Naruto looked at the stone again.

"Everyone always calls me a monster. I asked Iruka what he thought about it and he seemed a bit hesitant when he told me I wasn't. Kyuu is a huge monster and he's in me so I must be a monster too, right? That's why no one likes me."

"Naruto... that's not.." Kakashi looked around for a way to explain things easily, somehow the kunai in the stomach approach didn't feel quite right in this case. "Look" Kakashi grabbed a beetle that was walking on the ground with his chopsticks. "Let's say this beetle is Kyuubi and this glass of water is you alright?"

"Ok" Naruto looked at Kakashi with that look that says 'I think you are utterly stupid but I'll humor you to see just how much more stupid you can get.'

Kakashi ignored the look and put the beetle into the water. "Alright just like the beetle is in the water the Kyuubi is in you. The beetle continues to be a beetle even though it's been put in the water and the water continues being water even though it has a beetle in it now. But the thing is that people don't really like insects so when people see a beetle in their glass, even though it hasn't done anything bad to the water, they throw the water away to get rid of the beetle. So even though you are still you and the Kyuubi is still the Kyuubi people try to hurt you to get to him. Just like now, if I want to hurt the beetle all I have to do is shake the glass or do something to the water."

"So what do you want to do with it?"

"Personally?" Kakashi looked at Naruto. "As long as there is nothing wrong with the water then the beetle doesn't concern me." And with that Kakashi drank the water through his mask leaving the beetle behind. He then tipped his glass over and allowed the beetle out again. "Personally I like the water a lot better than beetles but if it just so happens that there is a beetle in my water then I won't be cruel to it." Kakashi smirked at Naruto.

"Now your just being silly." Naruto tried to look serious but deep down he was really relieved.

For the first time in his life Naruto knew what having friends was like. He'd met a lot of nice people through Iruka. He was also starting to get to know what having a family felt like, Iruka was like a father and big brother combined into one person and Genma had become Naruto's second big brother during the week he'd stayed with him. Kakashi was a bit different though. He was a lot more than a friend to him but Naruto still didn't really think of him as a brother or a father figure like Iruka and Genma. He didn't really understand it nor would he be able to explain it if he tried but somehow Kakashi meant a lot more to him than he could put into words. He was the first person whom Naruto trusted with all his heart. Kakashi's opinion of him meant more to him than any one else's so hearing him say that, no matter how silly the explanation had been, meant a lot.

"Well I think we should be heading back soon" Kakashi cut into his thoughts. "By now Iruka's probably killing himself with self accusations and guilt. Plus it looks like it's going to rain soon."

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

Sure enough on their way home it started pouring. Kakashi could slowly feel the little hand he was holding go colder and colder. A little sneeze made him look down, Naruto was soaked through and shivering as he tried to keep up with Kakashi's long strides. The look on his face clearly said that he was trying his best to keep going and not to complain. Kakashi admired Naruto for being so resilient at his age, being able to go on in harsh situations without complaining or giving up was a requirement for ninjas but most genin and even some chuunin weren't able to do it. Kakashi was a firm believer of the phrase "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" and that the more difficult things were, the more you learned from them. But even so there was a time and place for everything and Kakashi really felt no need for Naruto to catch pneumonia if he didn't have to. He took his vest off and put it on Naruto, not caring one bit that the hem of it was dragging in the mud.

"Kakashi?"

"Hmm?"

"What about your parents?"

Kakashi glanced down on the kid who was looking at him with uncertainty. "What about my parents?" He didn't really know what Naruto was asking about.

"Did they die when Kyuubi came too?" Naruto stopped walking, waiting anxiously for the answer he hoped wouldn't come. He didn't have to wait long.

"No they didn't."

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and started walking again. Lately he'd been realizing a lot of things. He didn't understand all of it but they were making a big impact on him. When Kyuu came a lot of people had been killed. He knew Kyuu wasn't bad, he'd always been very kind to Naruto, but people hated him and they hated Naruto for being his container. He hadn't really understood it before but lately Naruto had begun to wonder if maybe he and Kyuubi were the same. If he and Kyuu were close and the demon took care of him then that would essentially mean they were on the same side. And if that was true then what side were they on? With or against the village? Then were the people that Kyuubi killed people he killed as well? Did he have those peoples blood on his hands? Iruka's parents... His own father.

Naruto looked up at Kakashi's face. He still didn't really know what to think but Kakashi had said he'd had nothing to do with the Kyuubi attack and he'd like to believe that. Still he was glad that Kakashi's parents hadn't died in it.

"What happened to them?"

Kakashi studied the kid for a while, he usually didn't ask many questions and he wasn't sure if this new and curious Naruto was the result of the week spent with Genma and the cover they had made for him or if it had something to do with the attack on them last night. Naruto didn't look upset though, just genuinely curious so he supposed the kid was alright.

"Are they on the stone as well?"

Kakashi just realized he hadn't answered the kids question. "No they're not on there. I never knew my mother, she died giving birth to me. My father raised me the only way he knew how, like training a new ninja student." Kakashi smiled faintly at the memory.

"What happened to him?"

"He died at home, not on a mission. So his name's not on the stone."

"How did he die?"

Kakashi hadn't wanted to tell Naruto about this, he kept his eyes on the road as he answered the question to a subject he'd been avoiding for years.

"He committed suicide when I was 10."** (1**

Kakashi stopped when he felt the hand he was holding tug at his. He looked down to see Naruto had stopped moving again and was looking at him with surprise in his eyes.

"Why?"

_'What's with all these questions all of a sudden'_ Kakashi thought. "He went on a mission with his team, they ran into some trouble and to save his teammates life he failed the mission. Which caused the village a lot of trouble. Even the teammates he saved turned their backs on him when they got back."

"Well that was wrong." Naruto stated strongly.

Kakashi hesitated for a moment. Did he mean that failing the mission had been wrong?

"He saved their lives and they pay him back with that? You're nothing without your team. A team is a unit that you should be able to trust your life with no matter what. They should stick with you and support you even though they know you did something wrong. Even more so when you've done something wrong. You're nothing without someone backing you up."

For the second time that day Naruto had managed to make Kakashi speechless.

"Who taught you that? He asked Naruto with wonder.

"You did. You and Iruka." Naruto grinned at him and walked on ahead. Kakashi was left behind, looking at the back of a little boy wearing a jounin vest so big that it dragged behind him in the dirt, but somehow the the vest fit him perfectly in so many ways. Kami knew the kid had the experience and knowledge to deserve it.

_'If I'm never able to teach him another thing in his life then at least let him remember that one. If he does he'll surely become a good ninja in the future.'_

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******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

When they finally reached the base house Kakashi and Naruto were soaked through. He told the kid to go get ready for a bath and then made his way to Iruka's room. The sight that met him there made him wonder if he had made the right choice when he decided to focus on Naruto first and leave Iruka for later. He knew Iruka would beat himself up about things but he'd wanted to give him some space none the less because trying to comfort someone too soon could, and would, more often than not only make things worse.

When Kakashi opened the door Iruka glanced up at him before his gaze fell back onto the unmoving figure lying on his futon. Iruka looked like he hadn't bathed at all that day, actually he looked like he hadn't moved from that very spot since he'd sat down on it shortly after Kakashi left with Naruto. That wasn't what concerned Kakashi though. No what concerned Kakashi had been the bitter look of contempt he'd seen cross his friend's eyes when he'd seen him.

Kakashi walked in and closed the door, he had a feeling this wasn't going to go well.

_Naruto walked into their room. He was wet, freezing and shivering all over. He sat down at the end of their futon and started prying of his shoes. He had some trouble with it because his fingers felt so numb but in the end he managed to pull them off one at a time._

"How is he." Kakashi walked over to his partner. Iruka glanced at him again. _'Yep this is going to be hard.' _

"There's no change." Iruka's voice was curt and cold.

"Well that can be a good thing too. At least he's not getting worse right?"

Kakashi got no response. No glance, no cold remark... well actually he was getting something. It was a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach that almost made him shiver more than his wet clothes. A feeling that something not so pleasant was about to happen.

_Naruto took his socks off next and put them down with his shoes. He then got up and tried unzipping his jacket. He got the zipper half way down but then it got stuck and no matter how he tried he couldn't get it down any further, he then tried to zip it back up again but it wouldn't budge._

"So how are you holding up?"

"I'm fine." There it was again, that cold voice. Kakashi rubbed his eyes and braced himself for the break down.

"Iruka this wasn't your fault. You didn't do anything to cause this so you shouldn't blame yourself for it."

"I know. This didn't have anything to do with me."

"Uhm" Was Kakashi's intelligent reply. "Well that's good..."

_Naruto made his way quickly down the hall to Iruka's room. He'd ask Kakashi to help him with his zipper and see how Iruka and Genma were doing while he was at it. He really hoped they were doing alright._

"It's all your fault."

"What!" Kakashi was expecting something but the outburst he got wasn't one of them.

"You and that fucking brat! I knew it was a bad idea to take him in. None of this would have happened if that stupid gaki hadn't gotten involved. You just had to get him involved! Why couldn't you just listen to me for once in your life when I told you nothing good would ever come with that _thing_.

"Iruka!"

_Naruto walked up to Iruka's door and raised his little fist up to knock. Before his hand connected with the door he heard Iruka's voice._

"_It's all your fault." _

_Naruto stood there frozen for a few minuets. After what felt like eternity his hand slowly fell down to his side and he took a few steps away from the door. Away from the voice he'd been looking forward to hear. The cold voice he didn't want to hear ever again._

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

Genma's head was floating. At least that's what it felt like in the beginning. It felt light and his thought were swirling. In between he thought he could hear voices. He knew those voices but he couldn't place them right away. He tried to move but concluded afterwards that he really shouldn't have. His head stopped floating and he came crashing down. Hard. He couldn't move but his body aced all over and his head felt like it had been hit by a ton of bricks. Repeatedly.

He tried getting his bearings but when he focused his chakra he felt like he'd set his body on fire. He grunted out in pain but at least he'd gotten some of the information he was looking for. He'd sensed Naruto near by which would undoubtedly mean that the two huge signatures he was getting next to him were Iruka and Kakashi.

His thoughts were proven right when the ringing in his ears subsided. Those screaming voices definitely belonged to those two. He didn't hear much of what they were saying and he didn't much care at the moment. He just wanted the headsplitting noise to go away. He tried speaking but his throat was too dry so he ended up in a coughing fit. Which certainly didn't make his head and body feel any better.

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._

Kakashi and Iruka were snapped out of their argument by the sound of Genma's cough. Iruka bent down to help him. Kakashi quickly grabbed a glass of water from a tray near the futon and handed it to him.

When they had managed to calm the Special Jounin down his eyes focused on their faces. They both looked pained somehow. He tried clearing his head some more and for a moment his chakra flared again. "Nahh.." He tried speaking again.

"Shh don't say anything you've been severely hurt. Don't strain yourself." Iruka tried soothing Genma but the special Jounin grabbed his hand momentarily and managed to croak out a full sentence.

"Whe..re's Naru..tohh?" He couldn't sense him when his chakra flared up.

_Naruto finally snapped out of it. He quickly turned around and ran down the hall. He felt numb but this time it had nothing to do with the cold. He didn't feel the cold anymore. His mind was filling up with thoughts he hadn't had for a long time. Thoughts he didn't think he would ever have again. He didn't know what he was doing or what he was going to do. All he knew was that he didn't belong there so he had to get out. _

Kakashi ran out into the hall. After Genma asked them where Naruto was he couldn't sense him anywhere in the house anymore. The sight that met his eyes once in the hall nearly made his heart stop. At the end of the hall was his Jounin vest, he slowly walked over to it and picket it up. That's when he noticed that the front door was open.

******(1. No idea how old he was, just made it up.**

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******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**+Runs inside my room, puts bed up against the door and hides in the closet+ **

**I was so going to make this a more happy chapter but it just didn't work out... it'll get better I swear! I'll stop torturing my favorit guys soon.. for now.**


	9. Making it right

**Alright.. This chapter just kind of wrote itself, hope you like it.**

**I'd like to use the opportunity to say that I really like all the ideas you are giving me in the reviews... I kind of doubt that I'm going to use them but I like getting them non the less :P It helps me look at the story differently, which then again helps me write. So by all means keep them coming if you want :) **

**It's also funny to see that some of you are actually coming up with ideas that I've already come up with and am going to use... Funny how that works out.  
**

**Thank you guys for reading and for all the reviews... Hopefully after this chapter you won't hate Iruka so much...**

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**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Kakashi stared at the open door. There was a trail of water leading from it to Iruka's room. Or was it from Iruka's room to the outside. He didn't really care. All he could see where the little footprints in the water.

_'Naruto...'_

He clenched his fist around the collar of his Jounin vest. He tried to get his hands to stop shaking but they wouldn't listen. He tried to pull it together but he couldn't do it. He couldn't do anything. He tried and he tired but he just couldn't do anything. He never could. Couldn't save his father. Couldn't help protect Obito. Wasn't there for Rin. Couldn't help his Sensei. Tried his damn hardest to help Iruka and Naruto. He really thought he'd managed it this time too, but he failed. Like all the other times, he failed. It might not have been his fault but he was the rock. The foundation that held it all up. And he'd cracked. Bringing it all down with him.

He tried keeping it all inside. Tried to work through it like he always did but something in him finally gave up. His whole body was shaking now and he couldn't take it anymore. A scream burst it's way out of his throat. He didn't know what he was screaming for but he couldn't stop it from coming. He just wanted it to stop. The shaking, the screaming. The failure. He didn't even know he'd formed the Chidori until after he'd punched through the wall to his room.

He looked back at the open door. To the rain outside. He looked back down to the Jounin vest in his hand. Finally he took one last look down the hall to Iruka's room and then walked out.

He couldn't do this anymore.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Genma didn't really know what had happened but he knew it was something big. Something terribly big. Iruka sitting frozen, staring into space with a horrified look on his face only strengthened that conclusion.

_'Kami-sama I'm getting too old for this... I'm only 23 and I'm getting too old for this. My body hurts. My head hurts. Did you honestly have to kick a man when he was down and break my heart too?'_

"Irukahh..." Genma's voice came out like a croak. He tried again "Iruka?"

Genma was really cursing his broken down body right now. His weak voice wasn't getting through to Iruka who had now started mumbling non stop. Genma focused all the energy he could into hearing what he was saying but could only get bits and pieces.

"Fucking asshole... made it all worse again.. never should have taken him in.. just made it worse.. complete failure.. should just go and die somewhere."

_'Right that helps... A lot.'_ Genma glared at the ceiling. _'When I get better I am so going to destroy a temple you shitheads.'_

"Iruka!" Genma coughed again. He felt like he would be coughing up blood before the day was over but he didn't really care at the moment. He finally got a respond from the insane asylum candidate next to him.

"What the hell happened?"

"All my fault" Iruka croaked out. "I'm a fucking asshole. I made everything worse. Should never have taken him in, I shouldn't be allowed to look after him. Shouldn't be allowed to be around children at all. Only managed to hurt him even more. I'm a complete failure. I should just go away and die somewhere.."

"Iruka! Man I care for you, really I do. But sometime in the next century I'd like to find out what happened before my head explodes. I want facts!"

Iruka ran his hands through his hair, dislodging his ponytail without realizing it. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and then tried again.

"I'm stressed out. Screwed up on the mission, came back to find you and Naruto hurt, got a bad shock when..." Iruka trailed off.

"When what?" Genma pressed him.

"When.. when you said something before you blacked out. Then I panicked.. almost left you there.. but Kakashi made me take you home.. and you died.. but then you came back and the Hyuga said you might not make it through.. and I blamed myself so much.. so much that I couldn't take it anymore."

Iruka clenched his fists in his hair. Maybe if he pulled hard enough the pain in his heart wouldn't hurt so much anymore. Genma couldn't really understand half of that, but he got the most important parts.

"I couldn't take it anymore.. it couldn't be my fault.. Didn't want it to be my fault. So I blamed them. For a moment I blamed my best friend and an innocent child and I practically screamed it at him. Naruto... Naruto must have heard it. It's all my fault... everything.. Everything's my fault."

Genma was quiet for a moment. _'Well that does certainly explain things.' _If he didn't think it would kill him he would have rolled his eyes. He cursed his unmoving body again.

"Well then there's only one thing for you to do isn't there?"

Iruka looked at him hesitantly. "Wha... what?"

"If it's all your fault then fix the damn thing! Stop moping around feeling sorry for yourself and fix it! Even if it hadn't been your fault your friends are hurting. Are you just going to sit there and feel sorry for yourself or are you going to help them."

"I..."

Iruka's reply was drowned out by a scream. He and Genma both looked towards the open bedroom door. The scream had been filled with so much emotion. Anger, hurt, sadness.. despair. It had sounded so.. broken.

"Kakashi..." Iruka breathed out. He kept his eyes on the door as he stood up. "I.. I have to go." Without glancing back Iruka started walking out of the room. "I have to make this alright.. please let it be alright." And with that he was gone from Genma's view.

Genma lay there for a while. Suddenly he started laughing. He didn't know why but he just did. _'I'm going mad.. they're going to be the death of me I swear.'_ Just as suddenly as he'd started laughing he started coughing again. _'Well at least I'll die happy then.'_

Genma's eyes fell on the water container just out of reach. _'__Bastards!'_ He thought before his body decided he'd had enough and he slipped back into blissful unconsciousness.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Iruka paused once he got outside. He tried looking at the ground for footprints or anything he could use but all he could see were puddles. It was times like these that he needed Kakashi, he was the master tracker in the team after all. Well he was the master brain in the team so he'd just have to use what he had.

_'Now where would he go when he got upset.' _Iruka thought. _'Well there is always that place.' _

He hoped he'd gotten it right. If he found Kakashi they surely wouldn't have any trouble finding Naruto. He made his way to the only place he could think of that his friend would go to for comfort.

Iruka startled by the sound of thunder. He looked up at the dark sky. _'Perfect.'_ he thought. _'If this wasn't my screwed up life you'd think I'd walked into some cliché scene from Itcha Itcha where the guy runs into the rain looking for his hurt lover.'_ He started walking faster. His friend and his kid were somewhere out there. _'My kid... when did I start thinking of him as my kid?'_

Once he reached the area Iruka started running but once he got to the place all he was met with was the cold hard surface of the stone. Kakashi wasn't at the memorial. He cursed out loud. If he wasn't here then where the hell was he. Iruka was about to turn back to the village when something caught his eye. He looked a bit closer at the stone and waited. After a little while he caught it again. A glimpse of orange movement behind the stone. He prayed to anything that would listen that it was what he hoped it was and slowly made his way towards the stone.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Naruto ran without thinking. He didn't know where he should go he just needed to get away. From everything. No one wanted him around. No one. He didn't feel the hard earth under his bare feet as he ran through the village. He didn't feel the cold rain crashing down on him. He didn't feel the tears running down his face, the burning pain in his side from the running or how hard it was to breath either. All he could feel was the pain in his chest and the need to get away from it all. Away from the stares. The hateful words. Especially those hateful words he'd heard from his big brother figure. Maybe if he ran fast enough, far enough, he'd be able to out run them.

After a while his feet finally gave up. He fell down hard into the mud. Once he caught his breath again he sat back up and looked at his hands. He'd scraped them kind of badly. Something black caught his attention beyond his hands. He slowly got up and stumbled over to the now familiar shape.

He didn't know how long he'd sat there when he heard someone close by.

"Naruto." The gentle voice he'd been longing to hear earlier said.

He looked up and saw his own emotions painted clearly all over the others face. His brothers face. Full of loneliness, uncertainty and hurt.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Iruka slowly made his way up to the child. He was sitting up against the stone, his head on his knees and his hands on his head. When Iruka got close enough he crouched down in front of Naruto, he reached his hand out to stroke the little blond head but stopped mid way. Reluctantly he took his hand back and called the boys name gently. He really didn't feel like he had the right to behave like the kids guardian after what he did. When the boy looked up brown eyes looked into blue once for what seemed like hours before Iruka tried again. He didn't know what he could do to make this all right but he had to try. He'd been a teacher for a year now and had helped teachers for little over a year before that. He was an expert with kids but he'd never had to deal with something as big as this. Especially something he'd been the cause of.

Iruka sat down in front of the boy, took a deep breath and tried again. "Naruto, I.."

Naruto put his head on his knees again and covered it with his hands.

Iruka felt hopeless. He looked at the stone behind the little boy, his eyes finding the spot he'd looked at so many times automatically. It was just above Naruto's right shoulder. He reached his hand out and touched the two names. The flinch from the kid didn't go unnoticed. He ignored it for now, along with the sharp pain in his heart, and focused on the names.

"Hello, mom.. dad. I'm sorry I haven't been here for some time but I've been very busy these days. You see, something big happened. Something so remarkable that you probably wouldn't even believe it. I know because it took me some time to realize it myself. A few months ago this little kid was thrust into my life. I didn't like it at the time. In fact I have to be honest and say that I completely hated it." Iruka chuckled.

"I couldn't have been more wrong. I tried and I tried to push him away but he still managed to crawl passed my defenses. And for that I am so _eternally_ grateful. Because I really couldn't imagine my life without him now. I really couldn't." Iruka saw a little movement from the corner of his eyes but kept his gaze fixed on those two names. "This little boy has given me so much without ever asking for a single thing in return. He's brought me more happiness than I could ever have hoped for... happiness I thought I would never experience ever again." Iruka paused for a moment.

"But I think I've lost him. Because, you see, I made a huge mistake today. I took my anger, my hurt and my insecurities out on the two people I care for the most. I blamed this little kid for something he had nothing to do with. Just like I'd been doing before." Iruka took another deep breath. "So before I might lose this boy for good I wanted to introduce him to you. Mom, dad. This here is Naruto. He's my adoptive son... My little boy... he might not really be mine but I love him all the same. So even after I'm gone from his life I hope you'll look after him, like you would your own grandchild. I hope..." Iruka's words were cut off by the little bundle of orange that shot into his lap. He hugged the child close and kissed the boys forehead.

"Naruto." This time tear filled blue eyes held their gaze with his. "Naruto, I'm so sorry." Iruka gently wiped away his tears. "It wasn't your fault at all. Nothing has ever been your fault. Kami knows I've been a complete asshole and I don't deserve it but I hope someday you'll be able to forgive me."

Naruto nuzzled his head against Iruka's chest. "It's all right." He all but whispered. "You came back, so it's alright." Naruto hugged Iruka tighter. He had his big brother... his father back. He knew things probably wouldn't be the same for some time now but he'd come back for him. That was all that mattered, for now. Besides.. nothing got better by running away from it anyway.

After a while Iruka began to feel the cold seeping in. He looked up from the little boy in his arms at the dark clouds and the pouring rain. They had to get out off the weather soon. It looked like there was a storm coming in. Iruka stood up, picking the boy up with him, and started walking back to the village. Now there was only one other person he had to find before he could fix this all.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Kakashi was half way to the memorial stone when he stopped walking. Out of old habit his hand went into his weapon pouch, his fingers brushed against the little orange book for a moment before he pulled his hand out again. He looked at his empty hand and noticed it was scraped and a bit bloody. _'When did that happen?'_ When he noticed the shaking he put his hands into his pockets. He stood in the rain for a full ten minutes. Looking down the road that would lead him to the place where he used to seek solace. He couldn't face it now. Not after another failure. The place was one big memorabilia of his biggest mistakes. For the first time in his life he wondered why he'd been going there all this time.

Finally he turned around and walked in another direction. If he couldn't seek comfort with the dead then he supposed he had to do it with the living. Now the only problem was finding someone alive he could go to. Kakashi grinned and shook his head. He really did have to spend a little more time with someone who had a pulse. Well there was always one person he could go to.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

"My dear Friend! The teacher of our Young and Innocent future! My dear..." Gai stopped for an awkward moment.

"Iruka" Iruka put in, eye twitching slightly.

"My dear Iruka-Chan. What can I do for you and your Wonderful little companion on Such a Lovely Day!

Iruka shuddered slightly when Gai grinned and gave his customary thumbs up. Almost every brain cell in his head was brutally murdering the part of his brain that insisted on remembering the name for that pose. The rest of them were wondering what was so _Lovely _about the thunderstorm outside.

"Have you seen Kakashi today?"

"Ah! My dear Eternal Rival? It is almost time for another one of our Youthful Challenges! It's a tie at the moment but I Will Prevail this time! Or I will run 500 laps around the village. Backwards. And Blindfolded!"

"That's nice... Have you seen him today?" Iruka was getting slightly creeped out by just how much bigger Gai's grin had gotten.. and Iruka did not get creeped out easily. He was also getting more and more annoyed. He'd tried every single place he could think of where his friend would go to when he was upset. He hadn't been at the memorial, his apartment, the Hokage mountain, the tree he usually read his book in or any other place he hung out at. Iruka had even gone to his own apartment looking for the guy.

"No my Most Honorable Rival has not crossed my Path today! Did you need someone to look after Your Most Precious Jewel? I would be more than Honored to look after Such a Perfect example of the Power of Youth!"

"Ah no thank you. I think the kid's been screwed up enough for today" Iruka mumbled while thinking where the hell Kakashi could be if he wasn't here. Gai had been his last hope.

"What was that My Dear Iruka!"

"What? Oh nothing.. I said Naruto's had more than enough _fun_ for today." Iruka put on his best innocent teacher smile. "I really should be taking him home. I'll see you around." Iruka walked away, fast, before Gai could shout his goodbyes over the neighborhood. Which he did anyway.

Iruka was getting frustrated. He'd tried everything! He'd even asked Naruto where Kakashi might have gone because they hung out so much these days. Maybe the kid would know of a place he didn't but he hadn't known anything. Iruka needed help. Just after he'd decided to go to the only place he could think of for advice he felt like kicking himself.. even more than he already felt like doing. Why hadn't he thought about going there sooner.

Iruka really had to find him fast. Not only to make everything he'd screwed up right again but also because it was the only way to get Naruto out of the storm. The kid refused to let go of him and go home until they found Kakashi. Not that Iruka minded, he honestly couldn't be happier to be holding the kid and that things were getting better between them, he was just worried that the kid would get sick after spending so much time out in the cold with such little clothing. Iruka had dressed him in his sweater and ninja vest but the boy was still barefoot and soaked through.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

The third Hokage of the Leaf was sitting at his desk when his brown haired student burst into his office carrying what looked like a bundle of ninja uniforms with blond hair. Which, on closer inspection, turned out to be his adoptive grandson. Sarutobi barely compressed the chuckle that threatened to come out. The sight of Iruka standing there in his tank top, soaked through, hair either clinging to his face or sticking up awkwardly and holding a kid dressed in a ninja uniform ten times too big was indeed comical. And he knew this was a moment that he would look back on and laugh at. He just didn't think it was the right moment to laugh at it right now.

"Sensei have you seen.." Iruka began. The Third raised his left hand and pointed towards the couches in the corner of his office. Iruka glanced over. Kakashi was sprawled out on a two-seater fast asleep. His legs were dangling over the end, his left arm lying on the floor and his right arm covering his eyes from the lights in the office with the crook of his elbow.

"Came in a couple of hours ago." The Hokage glanced over his pipe at the sleeping form of his student and then back again to Iruka. "Wouldn't tell me anything. Just laid down there, mumbled a whole lot about failing everything and then fell asleep." Sarutobi looked hard at the younger half of the Akutenshi. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

Iruka looked between his partner and his sensei. "Well... You see..." Iruka put Naruto down and watched him run over to Kakashi. "I did something really bad." He rubbed the scar on his nose and looked back to the Hokage. "Uhm.. Something really, really bad." Iruka felt like a little kid who'd just been sent to the principals office, waiting for the punishment.

"Is that so... And what do you want me to do about it?"

"I.. What? Well uhm.. nothing really.. I mean it was all my fault, so I'll take care of it."

Sarutobi smiled "Well see that you do." He turned his attention to Naruto who had been standing next to Kakashi, hesitantly wondering if he should crawl into his lap or let him sleep in peace.

"Naruto." Sarutobi waited for the kid to turn around. "Come over here for a minute. I think Iruka has something to discuss with our sleeping friend over there."

Naruto ran over to his grandfather figure and raised up his hands. "Jijii, can I have some disinfectant. I scraped my hands." Naruto waved them in front of the Hokage's face to emphasize his point.

Sarutobi picked up the kid and set him on his lap before he opened a desk drawer and got the disinfectant. He wasn't just the Hokage of the leaf. He was a grandfather of a future ninja and before that he'd been a father to future ninjas. Keeping a disinfectant, or something else to clean wounds with, near him was almost as important as bringing your weapon pouch with you on an assassination mission. He then took the child's hands and started cleaning them.

"Are you alright." Sarutobi looked at Naruto's face, mainly his eyes, to see if he could read something from them.

"Yeah I'm fine, it's only some scrapes. They'll heal in no time."

The Third stifled a sigh. Naruto just sat there innocently looking at his hands. The Hokage couldn't see the slightest hint of any uneasiness in him but he knew it must be there somewhere. This was reminding him a little too much of another student of his who was good at hiding his emotions, unlike that one this kid didn't need a mask though. Sarutobi looked over to his other two students.

He really hoped he'd made the right decision by bringing them all together.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Iruka walked hesitantly over to the sleeping form of his best friend. He sat down on the coffee table in front of him before he gently shook him awake. "Kakashi... Kakashi?"

Kakashi yanked his hand off his face and squinted around the room until his eyes fell on Iruka.

"Oh hey.. What time is it?"

"What time.. it..." Iruka wondered if his friend was fully awake or not.

"Yeah.. you know those watch things you keep on your hand? Tells you the time.. might want to look at it and tell me which numbers those pointy things are pointing at?" Kakashi looked at his partner expectantly. He certainly looked awake but Iruka still wasn't sure. He looked at his watch in confusion.

"It's almost 7 pm... Look Kakashi..." Iruka began but was interrupted again.

"Ok.. almost time for dinner then. We should be getting home." And with that he stood up and stretched his long body. "Naruto, say goodbye to the old man and let's go home."

Iruka sat the dazed for a moment before he turned to his partner again. "Kakashi, shouldn't we talk about this!"

Kakashi picked up Naruto who'd just come running to them. He turned to his friend and looked a bit too thoughtful when he answered shortly. "Uhm.. No." Then he turned around and gave a little backwards wave to the Hokage. "Later Gramps."

"Kaka... I really think we need to talk about this"

Kakashi kept walking. "Well I don't."

"Why the hell not!" Iruka looked as confused as he felt.

"Because that would only make you feel better." Kakashi grinned back at his friend. "And I'd much rather see you squirm in guilt a bit more."

"You!... you... Fine I guess I deserve that." Iruka grumbled and followed his partner and his kid out into the hall. He shook the last drops from his hair and began tying it up again while he watched the two people he cared about walk away from him.

At the end of the hallway Kakashi turned his head to the side and looked back with his one visible eye.

"Iruka." His voice sounded a lot more serious now. "There's nothing to talk about. You screwed up, you realized your mistake and you took care of it. Stop beating yourself up about it. That's what got you here in the first place."

"Kakashi.."

"I'm fine. I just had my own problems to deal with but I'm fine now. Besides I think we should hurry on home and take care of the biggest problem we have at the moment."

"Problem?" Iruka asked confused.

Kakashi shook his head in disbelief. "You forgot about Genma didn't you?"

"Oh Fuck!" Iruka remarked before he ran out of the Hokage tower and made his way home as fast as he could.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

When Kakashi finally made it home again with Naruto, Iruka was making his way down the bedroom hall. It had taken Kakashi considerably more time than Iruka to get home. It had stopped raining and Naruto had been busy trying to walk on the surface of every puddle he could find, he'd already cleared the walking up walls using chakra trick and was very eager to start the next phase. It had resulted in a very wet Naruto and a slow walk home. Kakashi just hoped Iruka didn't mind the ruined ninja uniform, some of that dirt looked like it was there to stay.

Kakashi lead Naruto towards their room, he really had to get the boy into a bath. He'd been outside in the rain almost all day and, truth be told, he was completely filthy. Suddenly Naruto stopped dead causing Kakashi to bump into him and nearly trip while he tried to ease the collision for the kid.

"What happened to our wall!" Naruto pointed at the big hole in it.

"Yeah Kakashi, what happened to your wall." Iruka asked, innocence incarnated.

"Mahh.. you see there was this fly that came in through the open door..."

"A fly?" Naruto looked sceptically at Kakashi.

"What.. It was a really big fly." Kakashi remarked before he pushed Naruto into his room and told him to get ready. He looked back at his partner just in time to see the uncertainty in his eyes before he turned around again and headed to his own room.

"Completely enormous!" Kakashi called after Iruka before he followed Naruto into their room.

He didn't need to burden anyone with his own problems.

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	10. Ghosts

**Small update: **Some people have been asking about Itachi and him being Naruto's teammate in the exams. I wrote about it in chapter 5 and talked about it in the A.N. at the end of that chapter. Since Itachi went through the academy (even if he finished it in one year) he is already a part of a genin team and therefore not an option to be on a team with Naruto.

**A few points:**

I have this whole story in my head and therefore know a whole lot of background for all the characters and things that I might not manage to put on paper clearly enough, or I simply forget to put it in the story because I think I already have.

So in case it's not clear or some confusion comes up about it when you read this chapter then basically Genma pretty much knows that Naruto is gifted. He has some suspicions about Kakashi and Iruka and their relationship but that's about it. Therefore he has no idea that Iruka is above Chuunin rank or anything else like that even though he called out Iruka's name when they rescued him... funny how a blow to the head can do that to you..

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Rain. It was coming down in buckets from the dark clouded sky. Naruto hated the rain. Or so it seemed to the 3 men in the living room. He was sitting by the window glaring at the sky like it had just deeply offended him.

"I want to go outsiiide." He whined for probably the 28th time since that morning. Not that Iruka was trying to count, he just always did.

"Well you can't go outside so just find something to do inside." Kakashi answered for about the 22nd time, again not that Iruka was trying to count, the other six times he'd just grunted "Naruto." and rubbed his temples.

"I wanna train!" Naruto glanced away from the sky to the three men finally settling his gaze on Kakashi.

Kakashi stood up from the couch, where he had been sitting with Iruka, Genma was lying on a futon in the middle of the room. He made his way over to Naruto and sat down next to him on the floor, he then pulled the kid towards himself while leaning backwards until he was lying on his back with Naruto sitting on his stomach.

"You can't train today kiddo. There's no one to train you. Me and Iruka are sick and Genma is recovering."

Both Iruka and Kakashi had woken up with a rather bad cold that morning, Naruto had seemed a bit feverish when he woke up but had recovered very soon. All of them had just been chilling out in the living room. Genma had insisted on moving there as well despite of his injuries. He'd said he would rot if he had to spend all day in Iruka's small room and threatened to crawl into the living room himself if they wouldn't get him there. So Iruka and Kakashi had taken opposite ends of Iruka's futon and carried Genma in there.

"But, but I wannahh.. h-hey st-stop tick-ling." Naruto squirmed and tried to swat away Kakashi's hands.

"No way. You wanted to train, this is training." Kakashi evaded Naruto's hands easily.

"H-h-how is ti-ckling me tr-training."

"Use your head. It's like sparring, except I'm not trying to hurt you. Come on, is that the best you can do? What happened to all the things we've taught you."

Naruto tried in vain to evade the attacks but when everything he tried failed he decided that his best option was to get the hell out of there. He quickly threw himself to the left and made a mad dash over to Iruka.

"Hey, we never taught you to run away from battle." Kakashi called after him.

"I'm not running away, I'm making a tactical retreat to get back-up." Naruto ran into Iruka's arms and turned to face Kakashi again.

"Naruto." Kakashi sat back up with an obvious smirk in his sole visible eye.

"Yeah?"

"Just a little tip for the future. When getting back-up make sure the person you run to is actually on your side." As soon as Kakashi had finished talking Naruto felt hands circle the upper part of his arms and then pressure on his back, locking him in an inescapable grip.

"Ok Kakashi I have him." Iruka called out. Kakashi quickly made his way over to them and started tickling Naruto again.

"No fair. Iruka you're mean, I thought you were on my side!" Naruto wailed between laughing.

"Hey me and Kakashi are partners you know, teamwork is very important."

"But I thought I was your kid, family should always come before friends."

"Huh. You're right, I didn't think about that." Iruka released his grip on Naruto. "Alright, attack!" Suddenly Kakashi found himself being pushed down on the floor by the partner he was supposed to be able to trust with his life and four sets of hands tickling him.

"What! Iruka you traitor." Kakashi managed to flip over on his stomach and push himself out from under the other two. He scooted as fast as he could over to the futon Genma was lying on before he turned to face Iruka and Naruto.

"Alright, no one come any closer! No fighting around the injured man."

Genma rolled his eyes at that remark. "Sure use me as an excuse. I'm glad that while I'm lying here in excruciating agony I can at least provide you with cover from a Chuunin and a little kid." Genma's tone was filled with fake indignation and he managed a weak smirk up at Kakashi.

The mood in the living room might seem to be filled with easy going humor but Genma could still see traces of tension in the other three. A little hesitation here and a wary look there were all the clues he needed to know that what happened the day before wasn't completely sorted out yet. Naruto seemed almost unfazed, Genma wasn't sure if he really was or not, it was really hard figuring out just what the kid was thinking or feeling if he didn't want you to know. Genma had spent considerable amount of time studying the kid while he was taking care of him but had never been able to figure him out completely, he was getting better at it though so if he'd spend more time with the child he thought he might learn to read him completely.

Kakashi's relationship with Naruto didn't seem to have changed much from what Genma could tell but Iruka's relationship with the boy had changed somewhat. They did seem to have gotten closer after the argument but he could feel that Iruka still felt guilty about it. What Genma couldn't really understand was the strange tension between Kakashi and Iruka. Of course the two of them had fought the day before but he had a feeling that the problem had roots much deeper than from just that incident. Kakashi was almost exactly like Naruto, he seemed perfectly fine but there was a small voice in the back of Genma's head that insisted that that just couldn't be true. It was supported by the fact that Iruka kept getting a hint of worry in his eyes when he looked at Kakashi.

He couldn't really remember a whole lot of what happened after the attack but Kakashi's scream the day before was one of the things that Genma clearly remembered. That scream indicated that something definitely wasn't alright.

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All four guys turned to the window again when they heard something tapping the glass. Well three of them did anyway, Genma tried but gave up half way when he found that turning his head to see the window made it feel like it was going to burst open and he got a shooting pain leading from his neck and down his back.

The maker of the noise turned out to be a messenger bird tapping his beak against the window. Kakashi got up from his safe spot on the floor, opened the window and took the message. He smoothed out the little note and read it over before turning to his partner.

"The Hokage wants to see you." Kakashi glanced over to Genma to make sure he couldn't see him before he signed the rest of what he was going to say. "_He wants a full report on what happened on the mission among some other things._"

"Alright I better get going then." Iruka stood up and headed for his room to get his vest. Naruto followed behind him.

"Are you going to see Jijii? Can I come too?"

Iruka paused and turned to look at the boy standing in his doorway, his vest only half on.

"Ah, sorry kiddo." He finished putting on his vest and zipped it up before he walked over to Naruto and knelt down in front of him. "I have to make a report to the Hokage about our last mission and it's top secret so I can't take you with me this time." Iruka spoke softly so his voice wouldn't be heard down the hall. The base house wasn't exactly small but you could never be too careful and he didn't want Genma to hear him.

He ruffled the boy's hair. "You'll get to come along when you're older and ready for it."

Naruto looked Iruka in the eyes. "Do you think I'll be as good as you and Kakashi when I get older?"

Iruka was taken aback by the question. He'd heard the kid doubt himself as a person a few times but he'd never heard him doubt his own abilities before. Naruto was always full of confidence, sometimes overly so, in their training and never seemed to give up until he'd managed to learn what he was being taught.

"Naruto, there's not a doubt in my mind that you'll not only be as good as us in the future but you'll leave us so far behind in the dirt that we'll look like amateurs next to you."

Naruto gave him a skeptical look. "You're just saying that."

"No, as much as I'd like it not to be true I can't deny it. You're going to grow up to be a great ninja who'll make this young handsome man here gray haired way too early from worry." Iruka grinned and pointed at himself. "Don't get me wrong, I'll cheer you on all the way to the Hokage seat if that's where you're headed. I just wish you'd have turned out to be an average guy who'd end up as a desk working Chuunin instead of a future top secret assassin."

Iruka stood up and looked down on the boy. He couldn't figure out what was going through the kids head now. He looked thoughtful for a moment, or constipated, he honestly couldn't tell which. Suddenly Naruto looked intently at Iruka and reminded him, not for the first time, just how non average he was.

"Even desk working Chuunins have to take missions and fight when something big happens. It's better to train and be the best you can be instead, even if it means you have to put your life on the line more often. When it comes down to it those who go on regular missions have more experience than those who only work at the desks and will therefore be more likely to succeed in a crisis."

Iruka smiled down at the kid. He really was way to good compared to his age. "You're right. See this is why I say your going to grow up to be a great ninja in the future." Iruka started walking down the hall to the front door. "Just be good today and help Kakashi take care of Genma alright?"

"Sure." And then Naruto said something that proved just how old he really was. "Iruka?"

"Yeah." Iruka turned to look at the boy who looked a little confused about something.

"What made Kakashi worry so much that his hair turned gray?"

Iruka laughed and turned to the door again. "That's a good question, why don't you go ask him about it." He turned around in the door and smiled and waved at the child he'd begun to think of as his own. "I'll see you later. If you're good I'll teach you a new trap when I get home."

As Iruka closed the door he heard a little shout of triumph. At least one thing never failed to cheer the blond boy up.

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As the little boy ran out of the room after his guardian Genma decided to have a quiet conversation with Kakashi. He let his chakra leak out a little, feeling the Jounin still standing by the window. Deciding to just get straight to the point instead of beating around the bush, he'd gathered enough clues to know for sure that Naruto was no normal kid, he spoke softly from his spot on the floor.

"What level is Naruto on?"

Genma couldn't see Kakashi and for a moment he thought the guy wasn't going to answer him, that or he just hadn't heard him.

After some hesitation Kakashi answered the question, He knew Genma wasn't stupid and he'd more than proved himself while taking care of Naruto. Who knew, maybe he could even be of some help in the future.

"Well you've probably figured it out yourself but Naruto ain't exactly your average 5 year old. The Hokage started training him around a year ago and got him up to genin already." Kakashi wasn't about to reveal anything about the Akutenshi or the relationship between him and Iruka so he twisted the truth a little bit.

"The Hokage asked me to train him further, he's scheduled to take the Chuunin exam soon. I wanted to adopt him legally but because I'm a single Jounin it wasn't possible since I'm required to go out of the village on missions pretty frequently. Therefore it was decided that Iruka would adopt him. His job is to teach Naruto and train him further in the basics. We've been living here with Naruto since then."

Kakashi decided to move over to the couch to make things more comfortable for Genma. Talking to someone who you couldn't see was something ninjas tended to connect with torture sessions or suspicious characters and Kakashi could see the tension in Genma's body even though the other man tried to hide it. And since Kakashi was certainly not going to be telling the man the whole truth about the situation he needed to keep the man calm so he'd be less likely to suspect anything.

Genma looked over at Kakashi when he'd gotten settled. "I figured that much. You've decided to keep his abilities a secret?"

"Yes. Naruto faces enough criticism and controversy as it is, adding the pressure of being a prodigy and a Jinchuuriki as well to that makes his life in no way normal. We're having a hard enough time already getting the council to agree to let him progress as a ninja. You can only imagine how it would turn out if the whole population knew about it. We had a cover made for him, when Naruto reaches the right age he will enter the academy and be placed in Iruka's class, that way Iruka can keep an eye on him and his 'education' and the other teachers shouldn't notice anything if he slips up and suddenly exceeds all the other students. Hopefully during the time he goes through the academy peoples opinions of him will change and he won't meet to much opposition. When he graduates I'll be put as his Jounin instructor. It's not a perfect cover but we're working on it as we go, you helped us out a lot by giving Naruto that make-over. We never thought about changing his appearance which is a very important factor for everything to fit."

"So you think Naruto is ready for the Chuunin exams at this age?" Genma asked sceptically. Sure Kakashi had taken the test around that age, everyone knew that, but the test had changed and judging from the fight Genma and Naruto had gotten in he wasn't sure the kid could handle fighting anyone.

" Yeah I do. We have been training him to fight, he's an excellent student and he never gives up." Kakashi replied.

"Getting fighting training and actually fighting are two completely separate things." Genma stressed.

"I know that." Kakashi snapped. "I had a really hard time getting him to fight at his full potential when I first started training him." He sighed and and calmed himself down before he spoke again. "You have to understand that Naruto has been keeping himself in line pretty much his whole life. He's been striving to be this model child who never disobeys or steps out of line because if he makes one wrong step he's convinced that he'll be proving everyone who's ever called him a monster right. Iruka once asked him why he never defended himself when he was being beaten. One of the reasons was because he didn't want to stoop down to their level and that it was unfair to hurt someone weaker than yourself. But the most important reason was that if he hurt them back they would have even more of a reason to hate or fear him. Naruto constantly has to think about how his actions will be interpreted. That's also another reason why I'm very glad that you helped build a cover for Naruto while he staid with you. It helps him get over thinking about what other people think of him, it also gives him a chance to have some kind of a normal childhood."

Kakashi leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and rubbing his hands together.

"It's the most important thing to work on now. It's going to be hard to get Naruto to change his opinion of himself. From what I've seen when training him, he's not afraid to fight. He's not afraid to get hurt. He's not really afraid to hurt others either. What he is afraid of is himself. Good or bad, enemy or an ally.. Monster or human. Which one is he and which one will he become if he keeps on fighting. These are the only thoughts I've been able to read from him during training."

Kakashi didn't say it but he'd been thinking it for quite some time now as well. He didn't believe Naruto would ever become the demon he contained but what would he turn into if they kept pushing him in this direction. What would he become once he joined the Akutenshi. Kakashi and Iruka hadn't changed all that much but of course it had taken it's toll on them. Little pieces breaking off one by one, too small and far apart to be noticed but clearly visible when you compared the persons they had been then and the persons they were now. Kakashi fought everyday to keep his village safe, his friends and comrades safe and now.. a very important person had to be kept safe as well. Then why.. when he fought so hard to keep peace and life safe.. did he feel so conflicted. Sometimes he felt like a monster himself. He wowed that he would do everything in his power to make sure Naruto would stop feeling like that... would never feel that way again.

Genma was silent for a while. Then he tilted his head slightly to the side, as far as his injuries would let him, and looked at Kakashi. "So you believe that he is ready?"

"Yes I do." Kakashi stated. "And any reluctance that might remain with him by the time he takes the test will hopefully pass away during the examination."

"Well I hope you're right." Genma said as he looked back up at the ceiling. "For his sake I hope you are right."

Kakashi was compelled to agree. There was simply no knowing what was going through the boy's head and though he was almost certain that the boy was ready both mentally and physically there was never really any certainty at all when the blond boy was concerned.

And speaking of the devil. Naruto came ambling into the room, a slight smile on his face.

"Kakashi?" The boy asked thoughtfully.

"Hmm?" Kakashi hummed as he stopped staring at Genma and looked over at the boy.

"What made you so worried that your hair turned gray?"

Kakashi stared at the boy for what seemed like forever before his mouth finally supplied him with words. "Eh.. What!" Not very intelligent words but it was something at least. He hadn't been raised to take care of little children at any rate, too busy learning how to kill and survive.

"Iruka said you get gray hairs if you're worried, so you must have been really, really worried about something."

Kakashi looked back at Genma when the man began to chuckle weakly.

"Well you see Naruto, being worried isn't the only way for your hair to turn gray. It can also turn gray if something frustrates you or annoys you very much."

Naruto looked at the silver haired man thoughtfully. "Oh. So what happened to you?"

"I met Iruka."

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Iruka walked nonchalantly through the Hokage tower and up to the leaders office. He waved at Izumo and Kotetsu as he passed by the records room, greeted other chuunins and the occasional jounin who happened to have a child in one of his classes, regular Jounins didn't give him a second glance... mainly because they never gave him a first glance to begin with. When he reached the Hokage's office he gave his secretary his best polite smile as he breezed by her.

Iruka had _tea_ with the Hokage quite often so no-one ever thought twice about why a lowly mission desk chuunin and a school teacher was called to his office so many times. It really had started out with just tea when Iruka was younger and still terrorizing the town with his pranks. Sarutobi, recognizing the pranks as the outcry for attention that they were, decided it would be a good idea to meet with the boy at least once a week to see how he was doing. But when Iruka's talents had become known and with the passing of time the meetings had changed from idle chit chat to mission briefings and reports. Since Iruka handled most of their strategies, and was essentially the brains behind the organization of two, they used this method quite a lot. It was a bit less noticeable for a chuunin to come in and have tea with the Hokage than it was for two men clad in strange looking Anbu gear to come sneaking in.

As Iruka entered the office the leader of the village slowly took a final puff of his pipe before he set it aside.

"You know that's a pretty bad habit." The chuunin told the most powerful Ninja of Konoha. "You really should think about quitting."

Sarutobi smiled. "Unlike what most people would believe there are very few things that make a great leader." He gestured for Iruka to sit down. "Being level headed is one of them."

Iruka waited for a few moments for the man to continue but when he showed no signs of going on he inquired a bit confused. "What has that got anything to do with you smoking."

"The day I go into withdrawal from nicotine is the day this village crashes due to shitty management."

"Ah.." Iruka was still surprised at how essentially normal and good humored the Hokage was at times.

"So..." Sarutobi began lightly. "Tell me what happened." Iruka and Kakashi had already told the Hokage about the essential parts of the mission, which was mostly just that they had gotten the scroll before the enemy had had time to decipher it and that they had run into a slight problem, the full report had had to wait due to the attack on Naruto and Genma.

"I honestly can't tell you what on earth happened." Iruka began. "We went over the place as well as we could. Mapped it out, studied the guards and planned everything perfectly. I've gone over the plan and the events again and as far as I can tell compared to our information and our plans everything should have been perfectly fine." Iruka began rubbing his scar as he made himself more comfortable on the chair.

"The thing that just does not fit in are the guards. They weren't shinobi and therefore had no chakra signature to track and we took that into consideration. There is just no way that they should have known we were there! I was masking my chakra to the point where even Anbu members would have trouble feeling it, not to mention pin pointing it. Of course there is a small chance that someone just happened to spot me but that does _not_ explain how a whole platoon managed to sneak up on me without me feeling a god damn thing!" Iruka finished irritably.

"That does sound rather unlikely." The Third said as he contemplated Iruka thoughtfully. "What are your thoughts on the matter?"

Iruka rubbed his scar again, deep in thought. "There is another thing that's bothering me." He began slowly. "Even though they weren't ninja and had no chakra they moved like they'd had years of training as such. No regular guard, no matter how well he is trained, will fight like that. "

"What do you mean?" Sarutobi asked cautiously, eyes locked on his former student.

"I mean." Iruka said quietly. "That apart from the fact that they didn't have any chakra at all they could all have been shinobi at jounin level. The way they fought and moved suggests they've had extensive ninja training. Plus the mistakes they made were strange to say the least, it's like they were going to use chakra but then realized that they didn't have any."

Iruka bent forwards in his chair and regarded the Hokage with serious eyes. "Sarutobi-Sensei. It's like someone had just sealed away all their chakra or something, which is completely impossible because doing so would have killed them."

Silence filled the office as Iruka finished. The two men sat across from each other. Contemplating one another and the younger man's words. Finally the leader of the Leaf village moved, he reached into one of many secret compartments of his desk and pulled out the scroll the Akutenshi had recovered. After pausing slightly to make sure no one would interrupt them he carefully unrolled the old parchment and placed it on the table where both of them could see.

"I'm guessing Kakashi used his Sharingan to examine the guards?"

"Yes. No sign of any chakra what so ever, no chakra points and no chakra passages."

"Strange." The Hokage mumbled as he studied the old scroll. "Very strange."

"So what is this scroll for? Why did they show an interest in it?"

"No one knows." Sarutobi said quietly. "No one besides Orochimaru, it's his research and it's written in a code only he knows."

Iruka looked at the unrolled scroll. The markings on it made no sense to him at all, just a bunch of strange lines and symbols thrown in together to make a whole that could only be read by their creator.

"You think this group could be connected to him then?" Iruka asked.

"No." Sarutobi said. "No I don't believe they were. Not directly at least. This scroll was left behind by Orochimaru along with a lot of other things that he had no use for anymore, which either means he already knew all he needed to know about the subject or it was a lost cause. He has no use for this scroll and wouldn't therefore waste manpower to get his hands on it again."

Iruka sighed. "Well, I could come up with about a hundred theories about the why and the how but without more information nothing is going to come out of this."

"On that matter you are right." The Third agreed. "The only thing we do know is that even though this text is nearly impossible to decipher it is imperative not to let it fall into the wrong hands. Orochimaru wasn't known for working on anything remotely safe or innocent."

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Naruto ran down the hallway from the living room. After more whining about wanting to train Kakashi had finally come up with a fun exercise they could do indoors. First he showed him how to conceal his chakra and after practicing for a while Naruto had started to learn how to do it. After that Kakashi had told him to go and hide somewhere and try to keep his chakra concealed while the man would look for him, after that they were going to switch places and Naruto would have to try to find Kakashi while he was hidden.

So now Naruto was running around trying to find a good place to hide. The kitchen was out because it was only separated from the living room by a low wall so even if Kakashi had his eyes closed he would probably be able to hear him if he tried to hide in there. Both their room and Iruka's didn't have many places to hide, only the big closets in each room but he found both of them a bit too obvious to hide in so he went further down the hall to look for somewhere better. The house was quite big but the ground floor was pretty spacious and therefore had few rooms to choose from. The bathroom only had a shower, a bathtub, the toilet and some small cabinets so there was no place there to hide so Naruto closed the door again.

He looked to his right at the staircase to the upper floor. There was a small door on the side of it leading down to the basement but he wasn't allowed to go down there, it was where Kakashi's and Iruka's actual base of operation was and he'd been told that he was too young to go there yet. He didn't quite understand all the explanations they had used, he didn't quite understand a lot of things about their life or even his own life, but he knew what a secret was and why you sometimes had to keep things hidden from other people so he didn't ask or think much about it. He knew how to keep secrets very well and he'd learned quite early to not ask about things that didn't concern him, people never liked it when he asked about something. When the time came he would know more about it, until then he would just listen to what they said and not go there.

Naruto, on the other hand, had never been told not to go upstairs so he tentatively started climbing them. He knew there wasn't much up there, just a bunch of storage rooms and stuff according to Iruka. Naruto had asked him about it once but, even though he was very curious like most kids his age, he'd never gone there. He never really saw a reason to until now.

At the top of the stairs he entered another hallway, one that was probably right on top of the one on the ground floor. It had two doors on each side and a single one at the very end. Naruto tried the side doors first. The first three rooms were completely empty apart from the built in closets in two of them but, like the once in the rooms down stairs, they looked a bit too obvious to hide in. The fourth room looked promising, it had what looked to be a whole lot of furniture covered with white sheets, so there seemed to be a lot of places he could hide in in there. He decided to check out the last room before he settled on that one though, both to see if it had any better hiding places and also just to see it since he was up here already.

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Kakashi closed his eye and waited for the boy to exit the living room before he opened it again, he wasn't cheating because there was no way he could see the boy once he'd left the room and he'd rather see Genma when he was talking to him. There really was no reason for Naruto not to hear their conversation now but there was also no reason for him to be present so Kakashi decided to use the opportunity he had now to sort this out completely. Although the boy knew very well about the animosity directed towards him he didn't see a reason to remind him of it, plus the boy was looking forward to the exams and he didn't want to dampen his spirits.

"There's another slight problem with Naruto taking the chuunin exams." Kakashi began quietly so Naruto wouldn't accidentally overhear them. When he saw Genma was listening he continued. "The council agreed to let him take it on two conditions. One: he can not be recognized and two: he has to have two teammates with him."

Genma snorted at that, he knew just as much what it meant as Kakashi and Iruka did.

"Yeah I know. Even though not being recognized is best for Naruto and he is required to have two teammates to take the test to begin with it's a bit easier said than done. Of course people are going to notice a five year old taking the exams and even though he is a genin Naruto hasn't finished the ninja academy and therefore isn't a part of a genin team. And it's highly unlikely that two genins are going to be free to go with him."

"Yeah that's true." Genma agreed.

"But we did manage to sort all that out, although we have to bend the rules.. or down right break them.. a little bit to succeed."

Kakashi paused when Genma looked at him with a puzzled look in his eyes but when he said nothing he continued.

"Since Iruka has officially been appointed Naruto's guardian it's not against any rules for him to enter the exams under the Umino name and with some seals it will be possible to change his appearance slightly, we'll be turning his hair brown and darkening his skin color slightly to make him resemble Iruka more. The idea was to pass him off as Iruka's cousin or something like that. Since Naruto's status won't be going into any official records it's not going to be a problem for him to use a different name."

"I assume that's the rule bending." Genma stated. "So what's the rule breaking then?"

"As there is no chance to find two teammates to be on his team, both because like I said it's highly unlikely for two to be available and because even if they were they probably wouldn't be allowed to team up with him, we decided to just make them up."

"Make them up?"

"Me and Iruka will be going as his team. We'll henge into two teenagers and go with him through the first two rounds, after that there is only the one on one fighting left and no need for a team so we'll drop out at that point."

"And the reason for you telling me all this is?" Genma asked. Because Kakashi definitely wasn't the kind of guy who would just go blabbing about breaking international exam rules just to make idle chit chat.

"We need your help." He stated. "There were only three people, besides the council, who knew about Naruto's abilities and that he was going to take the exams. Since me and Iruka will be a part of his team that only left the Hokage to act as a sensei... and there is no way that he can do that. Since you already figured out on your own, about Naruto, you're the best choice that we have right now... well basically the only choice that we have right now because as you know it's very important to keep his abilities hidden and there is no one else we can turn to for help. The exams are in a month and since all you really have to do is just tag along you should have recovered enough by then to do it. So what do you say?"

"I'll say your completely out of your mind to even think about doing all that and if this whole thing ends up blowing in your face I'll be the first one to say 'I told you so!' while we sit rotting away in some dungeon or another."

Genma grinned and Kakashi couldn't help but smile back.

"I see he got you as well." He said softly.

"What do you mean?" Genma asked

Kakashi stood up and prepared to leave the room to go off looking for Naruto. He turned around at the door and looked at injured man on the floor.

"Naruto, apart from being a prodigy, has a rare gift. Be around him long enough and before you know it you're one of his best friends." Before Genma could argue Kakashi continued. "Yes, Naruto is hated. But the reason other people aren't affected by it isn't because they won't let the boy close enough for it to happen.. it's because _he_ won't let _them_ close enough to be affected."

And just before Kakashi walked out of view he said.

"You should count yourself lucky. Even though he is extremely polite and friendly to everyone he's very, very choosy about who he trusts and calls friends... and that's exactly what he views you as now."

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x. _

Naruto sat it his hiding place, concentrating very hard on keeping his chakra hidden. He wanted to show Kakashi how good he was becoming. He'd never really understood the need to prove himself to anyone. He'd seen kids his age working very hard to accomplish something, had seen their parents smile and compliment them even if they had failed miserably. Naruto had learned pretty early on that no one was ever going to pat him lovingly on the head or give him encouraging words no matter what he did. The only kindness he had received was out of either pity or duty and he often wondered if that kind of acknowledgement was any better than none at all.

"I'm not sure if that's what they are doing." Naruto mumbled seemingly to himself, but the demon inside him stirred. He understood what his kit was talking about. "I don't think they took me in out of pity... duty might be a part of it but I don't get the feeling that it is very often."

The red fox was silent and yet Naruto understood what he was saying perfectly. The so called monster inside him never spoke, the seal was too strong to allow such communication, but somehow their feelings were connected and they could always understand each other.

"They treat me like I belong." The little blond boy whispered. He was sitting underneath a huge desk in the space where the chair was positioned, a row of thick heavy drawers on either side of him and a plank at his back blocking him from view. He liked this room, it was dark and the furniture looked ancient but the row after row of bookcases somehow calmed his mind. Naruto had always liked books. He wondered why this room was never used anymore. The bookcases and all the furniture was covered in dust and he could see some spiderwebs in the corners. It looked like what ever floor material that the room once possessed had been stripped off a long time ago, maybe they had been planning on renovating it in the past. But for now the room was forgotten. Left alone. Untouched for who knew how long.

Naruto envied the room. He'd never wanted attention. Never really craved for affection. Not that he could remember at least. All he ever dreamt of when he was younger was to be left alone. To be given some peace. Because those were the only times no one treated him badly. But lately he didn't want that anymore. He wanted to be noticed. He wanted to be accepted. He had two.. no.. three men he wanted by his side. And although it warmed his unapproachable little heart the thought also chilled him to the bone.

"Will they ever throw me away like this room?" The little boy wondered. The beast stirred again. "What makes you so sure that they won't." The child mumbled quietly.

He was glad Genma had given him a cover. A mask to hide behind. A shield to protect him. If no-one knew the real him they couldn't hurt him. They could pound endlessly against his walls but they'd never get in unless he showed them the door.

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x. _

Kakashi paused by the stairs. He'd searched the ground floor by sight alone, not focusing his chakra to find the child's because he knew the boy wasn't good enough to mask it from him, probably wouldn't be for years, and he wanted to give the boy some time in order for him to practice holding his chakra in for a long period of time. He knew the boy wasn't in the basement, he never did anything they had told him not to do.

Kakashi looked up at the second floor from where he stood at the bottom of the steps. No one had ever told the boy not to go upstairs. There was no reason to. It was only Kakashi who never went there. Could barely make himself step on the first step of the stairs. He knew what waited for him up there. '_Where is Iruka when you need him._'

The young man let his chakra flow out. Up the stairs. Across the floor. Down the hallway, through every door and into each room. Finding nothing... until he reached the last door. The only place left for the boy to be hiding in. The only place Kakashi couldn't enter.

He paused for a moment, not really knowing what to do. On one hand he had to get Naruto out of there, couldn't just leave the boy alone there for long. But on the other hand he knew he couldn't do it, couldn't face the ghost that waited for him behind that door. So there was only one thing he could do. He focused his chakra, did a few well practiced hand seals, bit his finger and slammed his hand on the floor. There was a puff of smoke before a small brown dog became visible, it had on a blue vest and a ninja headband on his forehead.

Recognizing the nervous smell of his master, he never looked anything but cool and composed but you can't fool a dog's nose, he decided not to grumble at the summons. He might give the brat who raised him shit on a regular basis but he loved him well enough to not kick him when he was down.

"So what is it you want me to do?"

Kakashi bent down and rubbed the dog's head absently. "He's in that room." It wasn't much but the dog understood.

Pakkun followed his master's gaze to the second floor. "Iruka's puppy?" He knew that Iruka would never go in that room himself.

"Yes." Kakashi replied. "And he's a kid not a puppy." He added as an after thought.

"Is there a difference?" The little pug mumbled. "So you want me to get him out?"

Kakashi sat down on the floor in front of the stairs. "I just can't..."

"Mm hmm." Was all the dog said as he started hopping up the steps.

He might not understand human emotions all that well but this he did understand. He'd been a puppy himself when it happened but he still remembered being cuddled up against a young silver haired boy, who had just started concealing his face, as he shook almost every night from some unseen terror. A boy who all too soon had seen bloodshed, had shed other peoples blood, for the sake of a village and for the approval of one man.

A man who had taken his own life in the library of their home and left his blood drained body for his son to find, surrounded by a circle of blood that had soaked into the thick carpet.

He might not understand humans at all, but he knew his own senses.. and he never wanted to see his master go through that again.

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x. _

Naruto stilled completely when he heard the door creak open. He hadn't heard any footsteps coming down the hall, not that that said much since both Kakashi and Iruka often walked without any sound at all when they were at home. He didn't hear any footsteps after the door opened either but something was there, he could feel it. Not Kakashi. This thing was way to small to be his friend, and it didn't really feel human.

Even though Naruto didn't know how to mask his own chakra, or find anyone who was doing so, he was pretty good at sensing people. It had happened almost by accident a year ago and he'd used it so often since, trying to avoid certain individuals or just people in general, that he had gotten quite good at it. His focus wasn't really good though so when he concentrated all he could sense was the small chakra signature crawling closer across the floor to where he was hiding. Naruto got ready to face what ever it was that was coming. He hunched up, bringing his fists in front of his face. Either to defend or attack.

"I'm not here to hurt you so you can relax." A gruff voice spoke from the side of the desk.

Naruto snapped around to face the direction of the voice. He didn't see anything. "How did you..."

"I might not be able to see you but I can smell you just fine.. and you reek of determination and wariness... Among some other very interesting things." The small pug said as he walked into view.

"You're a dog?" Naruto asked a bit surprised.

Pakkun just rolled his eyes as if he wanted to say that no he was actually a cat, but he let the sarcastic remark slide and instead went with. "Yes, that would be correct."

"Dogs can't talk!" The little blond boy said as he squirmed a little.

It was at a time like this that it was hard being a prodigy Pakkun thought. The boy knew very well that logically dogs should not be able to talk and yet there was still a five year old boy in there as well exclaiming in wonder and excitement over the real thing sitting right in front of him. He'd seen it often enough with his master in the past, when he'd wanted to do something silly like jumping in puddles after the rain but never did because it was beneath him and he knew better than to do something so foolishly pointless.

"Yes, you're absolutely right. Normal dogs don't talk.. but I'm not a normal dog so I don't count."

Naruto squirmed more. Pakkun thought this was very interesting. He could smell the interest the boy had very well and yet he was holding himself back from asking questions or even showing much of an interest at all. This puppy wasn't normal. Dogs were very good judges of character and even though he could feel that this pup was as good as they got there was something dark in him as well.

To help the boy out a bit he answered the unasked question. "I'm a ninja summons, which makes me a ninken not a regular dog. Kakashi trained me to speak so I'd be able to carry messages."

"Kakashi can summon you?" The puppy asked him. If the dog could smile he would be doing so now. This young pug was so much like his master, he looked like he wasn't interested in him at all but the smell gave him away.

"Yes he can, he wanted me to come and get you."

"Why didn't he come himself? He's supposed to find me himself."

Pakkun paused, this was probably something he shouldn't be sticking his paws in. "He'll tell you when you get down stairs." Not that the dog had any idea if his master would or not, he'd be long gone before the puppy got downstairs.

_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x. _

It wasn't until that evening though that Kakashi gave Naruto an honest explanation of why he hadn't come to get him himself.

The boy had paused on the stairs as he was coming down them and for a while all they did was look at each other. The man sitting on the floor and the little boy standing on the stairs. That was how Iruka found them when he got home from his meeting with the Hokage and without any explanation he knew what must be going on. He might not be able to read either of his two companions but he'd lived with Kakashi long enough to come up with some pretty good guesses, plus all the evidence he needed was standing right in front of him.

"Naruto." He said gently to the boy. "This is your home and you are allowed to go anywhere you want in it except for the basement." The little blond head turned and those gentle blue eyes were directed at him.

"But why.."

"Kakashi never goes to the second floor." Iruka cut in before the boy could finish. "He has his reasons to but that does not mean that you can't go up there. You didn't do anything wrong."

Naruto had seemed content with that and had descended the rest of the stairs, stopping in front of Kakashi. "You cheated." He half whined. "You used a dog to find me."

Kakashi smiled at that. "No I didn't, I knew exactly where you were and sent a dog up to _get_ you not to _find_ you."

They had just crawled onto their futon and Naruto was squirming about trying to find a comfortable place on Kakashi to snuggle up to. Once the boy settled down he looked up at him, yet again with an unreadable look on his face.

Kakashi sighed as he put his arm around the child and closed his eyes. After what seemed like eternity he whispered the words. Recounted a small fraction of a memory he never wanted to remember.

"My father died in the library. I found him two days later when I came home from a mission."

Not a word was spoken after that, but both man and boy held one another just a little bit tighter that night. And for the first time in a while Kakashi couldn't feel his hands shaking.

* * *

**Sorry for the long wait... have just been way too busy to write this story properly and I'd rather do it properly than rush it.**


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